Samphires U14s hosted Listowel last week on a beautiful, sunny but windy evening in a Fenit.We suffered badly earlier in the season in the reverse fixture and we hoped we could make up for that display and give our supporters something to cheer about. We started the game with the aid of the wind which was blowing diagonally across the pitch. We had a fabulous first half and forced quite a number of chances. Thomas Lenihan and Eoghan McElligott were top class at the heart of it all,worked tirelessly both offensively and defensively and both showed a vast array of skills. On the wings we had Ciaran Carmody and Jack McCarthy neither of whom allowed their opponents any time or space to start attacks. At the back we had Sean Donnellan and Dara O’Connor right and left respectively, setting up many of our attacks and Antoin Stanton and Bobby O’Regan in the centre were very solid with Bobby’s young brother Brian making his debut for us in goals and a super game he had. Up front Sean Higgins was always looking for a chance ably helped by Fionan Mackessy who played his first game for us as a forward. In this first half we had many chances to score with Thomas and Eoghan probing,creating, Sean up front with a shoot on sight policy and Jack pinging in many dangerous crosses. Unfortunately all our shots went the wrong side of the post until eventually a high ball into their box folled them all and Sean was on hand to finish. With 3 minutes to the half Listowel hit a hopeful ball into the area which looked destined to go over the bar but the wind caught it at the last second and it drifted into the top corner. 1 all at half time. Though we dominated most of the first half the shoe was on the other foot in the second and we had to soak up the pressure and play on the counter. Despite this we had a superb chance for number 2 when Thomas put Sean through, he moved away from their defence at speed but shot narrowly wide. We introduced David Lenihan with 20 minutes to go for his debut and he showed he was not out of his depth and linked very well with his teammates.Listowel’s bigger size was causing us some difficulty and with 10 minutes to go we failed to deal with a cross and Listowel capitalised. After this we piled on the pressure but couldn’t break through and Listowel scored a third with 2 minutes left and it finished 3-1. Well done to all our lads on the night who represented the club with great pride. Thanks too to all our parents who stayed to shout us on.