Published: Wednesday, 16th September, 2009 5:00pm

Omukoro stars as Willow Park Reds edge out unlucky Hodson Bay side

Sam Omukoro inspired Willow Park Reds to a narrow victory over a terribly unlucky Hodson Bay Celtic on a beautifully sunny Saturday morning in Willow Park.

Omukoro, whose size and power caused huge difficulties for Hodson Bay, opened the scoring in the eighth minute and also set up his team's second goal.

Omukoro was also at the heart of pretty much every single Willow attack and is possibly one to watch closely in the future.

Hodson Bay dominated rather large periods of the second half and somehow couldn't draw level in the closing minutes as they heaped pressure upon the Willow Park goal.

Central to Hodson Bay's frustration in the second half was Willow Park goalkeeper Shane McEnery, who made some truly outstanding saves in the second period.

Conditions were absolutely perfect at Willow Park on Saturday morning and the home side took control of the opening proceedings, with Hodson Bay defender Niall Ryan doing well to intercept Omukoro as he threatened to burst clear on goal.

However, Ryan and his fellow defenders could do little to stop Omukoro opening the scoring on eight minutes, as the striker turned neatly in the box before clinically firing a fine shot past Shane Mannion.

Although Willow were not looking very comfortable, the game went through a bit of a lull in terms of goalmouth incident.

The few onlookers had to wait until the 24th minute before another opportunity arose when Omukoro slotted through Nemanja Bozic but he was excellently intercepted by the solid Niall Ryan.

Claudio da Silva then tried to manufacture a chance for Willow but his cross was overhit somewhat and Hodson Bay survived.

The visitors failed to threaten Willow's goal until the closing moments of the opening half but Conan Gleeson was off target with a free kick from the edge of the box. Up the other end, Omukoro was unlucky to see an overhead kick deflect just wide of the post and, from the resulting corner by Claudio da Silva, Willow probably should have scored but there was nobody on hand to tap home da Silva's brilliant delivery.

Willow didn't have to wait much longer for a second goal. Six minutes after the restart, Omukoro released Habib Sanusi through on goal and he showed excellent composure and poise to lift the ball past the on-rushing Mannion.

However, things changed completely after Sanusi's goal and Hodson Bay began to grow into the game.

Gleeson was now running matters from midfield and it was a rasping strike from Gleeson that forced McEnery into a stunning save.

McEnery punched Gleeson's 25-yard thunderbolt around the post and then made another two wonderful saves when a goalmouth scramble ensued from the resulting corner kick.

It was Gleeson who brought Hodson Bay back into the tie in the 46th minute, his long range free was perfectly flighted over the helpless McEnery and into the roof of the net.

But Hodson Bay then needed a brave save from Mannion to keep them within touching distance, the young 'keeper diving at the feet of Omukoro to deny him a second goal. Omukoro had also made that chance all on his own, bursting down the right wing and cutting into the penalty area in impressive fashion.

With nine minutes remaining, McEnery had to dive full length to keep out a fierce low drive by John Cunningham, who had been set up by Martin Nolan.

McEnery also did well to keep out a header from Gleeson as Hodson Bay increased the pressure on their opponents.

Willow were now panicking a bit and the manner of some of their defending was becoming more and more desperate.

Hodson Bay were doing everything in their power to equalise and definitely deserved to take a share of the spoils home to Ballybay.

An effort from Gleeson took a slight deflection and struck the top of the crossbar before going over the top of the Willow goal.

Willow threatened briefly on the counter attack but Mannion did well on a couple of occasions to keep out long range efforts from the home side.

Hodson Bay finished the match with their heads in their hands after a last minute close range effort by Gleeson crashed off the Willow crossbar and was cleared to safety.

WILLOW PARK REDS: Shane McEnery; Lodin Olutunji, Przemek Zmuden, Ronan Mulvihill, Eric Frinberg, Ciaran McGuinness, Habib Sanusi, Nemanja Bozic, Sam Omukoro, Claudio da Silva, Daniel Flynn. Subs Used: Freddie da Costa, Tomas Zapelta, Emile Sonne and Emmanuel Abayoni.

HODSON BAY CELTIC: Shane Mannion; Niall Ryan, Alan Daly, Brian Stack, Robbie Fallon, Eamon Cunnane, John Cunningham, Conan Gleeson, Conan Quinn, Conor McNiece, Martin Nolan. Subs Used: Jack McDonnell, Conor Murray and Michael Benson.

Referee: PJ Allen.