Samphires Under 15s played Killarney Athletic B in the league last Friday in Fenit. It was cloudy as it usually is at this time of year with a slight westerly breeze blowing down the pitch. We played with the elements in the first half and started off very quickly and after a quick series of passes we were on the attack on the right wing after David Murphy played a lovely ball to Cian MacGarry. He cleverly rounded their full back and crossed into the 6 yard box only for Athletic to half clear. The ball fell to David Egan who finished into the side of the net and we were in the lead in less than half a minute. The next 15 minutes were to see us dominate and we produced a succession of chances but no matter what we tried we just could not score. A combination of poor finishing with a superb display of goalkeeping kept the score at 1 nil in this period. In addition our through balls from midfield were not subtle enough in this phase of the game and our touch in the last third needed to be sharper. But if this is painting our lads in a negative light it is only to emphasise that if we could be just a little bit better in these areas we could go on to be a very useful side. At the other end we were comfortable in the opening quarter. After 20 minutes the inevitable happened and David Egan got his second again after a raid down the right through a combination of Jack Mac, Ryan and David Murphy after John O’Shea had made an excellent interception in our half. It looked that we would win this one comfortably but Athletic came into the game at this stage and Jamie at one stage had to be at his best to rescue us when our defence was breached. Even still it looked that we would have to do something poor to concede and that is exactly what happened. 2 of our lads both went for the same ball resulting in neither getting it, their winger flew in like a thief in the night and had it in the back of the net before we could recover. The last 10 minutes of the half it was a topsy turvy affair with us probably more on top but Athletic dangerous with their direct brand of football.Just before the half time whistle blew Thomas and Ryan in the middle won possession and quickly put David Egan through on the left. He squared to Jack who finished clinically. 2nd Half – Again we started on top and went at our opponents with gusto, Padraig O Connor on the left and Sean Higgins on the right (who had come on for the injured Thomas) both featuring prominently. A feature of the Killarney team was that their centre forward was dropping deep into our midfield causing confusion in our ranks as to who should be picking him up and from one of these attacks he turned on the ball and hit blindly from 25 yards but the ball found it’s way under our crossbar and now it’s 3-2. But if you have seen our lads this year you will know that they are at their best when the chips are down and from here to the end of the game we played with intensity against a team who were also growing into the match and it was a great game for the neutral. Cian and David up front continued to give them trouble but the same problems as we saw in the first half still applied in front of their goal and we failed to add to the lead. Our attacks down the flanks were very incisive, Ryan and Jack in centre mid were in control generally and they set up attack after attack but no matter what, Athletic just would not give up a goal with their keeper in particular having a super game. In the last 15 Athletic started to come at us and there seemed every chance they would equalise but with Eoghan in goals being very solid and David Murphy, Jimmy Shanahan, Bobby O Regan, Antoin Stanton and in particular Jamie Hogan being resolute in defence with Ryan holding station in front of them we held out. In this 15 minutes it was us on the counter and the player who turned out to have the most influence on this latter part of the game was our own Ole Gunnar Soljkaer, Gordon Burrowes again this week. His linking of play in their half was very clever and he managed to set our forwards away on a few occasions taking the sting out of their attacks but his most telling contribution was from a corner from Cian on the right. He got up with their keeper Richard Dunne like and though he didn’t score himself he forced a scramble for possession in their box. Jimmy hit it from near the edge, it cannoned off one of their defenders to the grateful Jack Mac who tapped in for his second and our 4th to finish the game. Well done again to all.