Last weekend our under 14 team played Killarney Athletic in another league match. The venue was Fenit and there was a howling wind blowing straight down the pitch towards the Castleview end. We had the wind in the first half and dominated proceedings. We squandered 3 chances before scoring after 10 minutes through Sean Higgins after some good interplay with Christopher Murphy and Sean Donnellan. After another 5 minutes it was 2 after a period of pressure at the end of which Jack Mac crossed low and hard to Thomas Lenihan but before we could get to the ball a defender put through his own goal past a very good Killarney keeper. We kept the pressure up but couldn’t force another despite numerous chances, some gilt edged. After 25 minutes we had a player sent off for 2 yellows, a very harsh decision in the conditions and at times we felt we weren’t getting the breaks but we rejigged the shape of the team from 4-5-1 to 4-4-1 with the net result that our wide players of Thomas Lenihan and Christopher Murphy had to be more defensive for the rest of the match blunting our offensive threat especially as these 2 were revelling in their original role. Antoin Stanton moved from being the covering midfielder to right back leaving Jack McCarthy and Eoghan McElligott to contest the centre. As usual our opponents had 2 or 3 bigger lads than us and from this point on in the game they came more into it as space opened up for them but our back 4 of Antoin, Dara O’Connor and Bobby O’Regan in the centre and Oisin O’Brien were steadfast in their resistance and held firm. Behind them we had Henry Downing in great form and his handling in particular was top notch. The wind in the second half rose to a gale and we conceded a number of long shots from outside our box which has been a trait of our second half performances this season and one of these flew in just under the crossbar after 15 minutes. This gave our opponents momentum and they seized the initiative to keep us under pressure,they created a series of chances and were rewarded with a second after another 8 minutes. Unbelieveably they scored another pot-shot from an angle and from distance 2 minutes later and we were 3-2 down. So 10 minutes left, down to 10 men, against a gale, against a bigger team, you would have thought the flood gates would open and 3 would become 6. But no, our lads kept going and going to the end. Bobby went to midfield, now we had 3 at the back, Eoghan went up front and Ciaran Carmody and Cormac O’Brien came on to add impetus to our offensive effort. We took the game to them and the breakthrough looked on but their defenders and keeper stood strong and we couldn’t pierce the Killarney goals until eventually Eoghan got in behind to score a memorable goal after some tremendous work by his teammates in the midfield area with a minute to go to equalise. Well done to all our players on their performance – it was great to see the fight back in these circumstances. Thanks too to all the parents who roared us on.