Clinical Hyland hits hat trick as Willow Park advance

A brilliantly taken hat-trick from forward Colm Hyland helped Athlone's Willow Park into the last 16 of the Leinster Junior Cup after a tough challenge from Wexford's New Ross Celtic on Sunday afternoon. Like most pitches at present, Willow Park's home surface was deemed unplayable, so this tie was moved to Athlone IT to prevent Willow losing home advantage against tricky opposition. And they'll be glad to have kept home advantage as this New Ross side proved themselves far from a pushover and tested Willow for long periods. However, in the end, Willow just had too much class for the visitors, and the manner in which Colm Hyland struck a blinding hat-trick perfectly summed up the major difference between the sides. Willow Park were without the services of experienced and influential midfielder Colin Fortune, so manager Tony O'Sullivan shuffled his pack in that sector of the field, with Mark Nicholson and Mark McConnell forming a central midfield axis, and Gary McHugh shuffling to the left wing. Although Athlone IT's astro-turf surface is rarely conducive to free-flowing attacking football, Willow will be disappointed by their far too frequent failed attempts to keep possession, an aspect of their play which is usually far better. However, they again did enough and showed their class in the attacking zone of the field to see off dogged opponents who themselves came to Athlone to attack and put Willow to the test. Indeed, it could be argued the game's main turning point came just before half-time. With Willow leading 1-0 thanks to Hyland's tenth minute strike, leggy New Ross striker Michael Grangel found himself straight through on goal with only home 'keeper Ian Bolger to beat. Bolger, though, stood his ground impressively and thwarted Grangel, with Willow then breaking quickly upfield and netting a vital second goal. Hyland's finishing was of the highest quality on the day. On ten minutes, he shrugged off the unlucky Ricky Cashin before firing a great effort across the face of goal from an acute angle and into the net via the right post. His second strike was even better. When Grangel was denied by Bolger, Willow broke swiftly and when the ball eventually fell into the path of Hyland at the edge of the penalty area he clinically whipped it past the helpless Aaron Deegan and into the top corner of the net. Hyland has spent much of the past couple of seasons playing on the right flank, a position filled by his brother Aidan on this occasion, but these impressive strikes will do his case to remain up front the world of good. Right-back Robbie Shine tried his luck from distance early on but his effort was always going well over the bar. It was actually New Ross who had the greater glimpses of goal in the opening 25 minutes. Paul Phelan, whose cultured left foot was a constant source of menace, floated over a well-taken corner kick but Sean Culleton headed over Bolger's goal when he should have done better. Phelan's free kick from just outside the Willow box was also narrowly wide in the 23rd minute, before Willow went close through Aidan Hyland's ambitious but brilliantly struck volley from 25 yards. On 37 minutes, Phelan was again at the centre of things, delivering a fine cross from the left flank which Grangel would probably have converted had he not failed to properly execute an attempted header from eight yards. These were all signs that New Ross didn't arrive to lie down and easily surrender, but Willow eased the pressure around the 40th minute mark when Colm Hyland burst into the New Ross box but this time disappointed when it came to delivering a pass to a colleague. Ronan Frawley was not far off scoring either when his back-post from a corner kick sailed over Deegan's crossbar. Hyland's second goal, a lovely clean strike from 18 yards, gave Willow breathing space at half-time and, to be truthful, a plucky New Ross never looked like really troubling an improved Willow after the break. The home side almost netted a spectacular goal on 56 minutes when Mark McConnell's bicycle-kick from an inch-perfect Gary McHugh cross was somehow tipped wide by the acrobatic Deegan, who also did well to punch clear through a crowd of bodies from the resulting corner kick. McConnell also had a good opportunity in the 68th minute but his lobbed effort floated too high and over the bar. Willow finally delivered the killer-blow in the 71st minute when substitute Brian Frawley teed up Hyland to stroke the ball past Deegan and make it 3-0. Willow Park: Ian Bolger; Robbie Shine, Peter Sherlock, Earl Gaylard, Ronan Frawley, Mark Nicholson, Aidan Hyland, Mark McConnell, Benny Magennis, Colm Hyland, Gary McHugh. Subs: Brian Frawley for McHugh (68 mins), Craig Tone for McConnell (71), Michael Harney for Magennis (78). New Ross Celtic: Aaron Deegan; Patrick Kinsella, Gary O'Connor, John Mullett, Ricky Cashin, Damien Cullen, Anthony O'Connor, Sean Culleton, Michael Grangel, Philip Drohan, Paul Phelan. Subs: Sean Purcell for Culleton (45 mins). Referee: Tony Ward.