We played our last U14 home game last Tuesday evening against Killarney Athletic. Both teams were short a couple of regulars in a match where both teams were hoping to get a few more points on the board before the season finishes. We started with young Brian O’Regan in goals for us even though he normally plays under 12 for the club (and for the county team too). At the back we had Sean Donnellan and Sean Mortimer at right and left back with Antoin Stanton and Bobby O’Regan in the centre. Our line of 4 in midfield consisted of Thomas Lenihan and Eoghan McElligott in the engine room in the middle and Dara O’Connor and Jack McCarthy raiding on the wings, leaving a front 2 of Sean Higgins and Oisin O’Brien. The first half was even enough with neither defence in any mood to give up too many chances. The 2 Seans at right and left back had their hands full with tricky wingers but in the main frustrated them. In the last 10 minutes of the first half Athletic scored twice when we didn’t defend as we had been doing especially in front of our penalty box. Sean Higgins replied just before half time to give us a lifeline after some good work behind him by Eoghan and Thomas. The second half was a better one for us and we dominated mostly. We had most of the possession with our back 4 playing out on the ground to our midfield who were all doing very well. Jack Mac on the left and Dara on the right repeatedly attacked their flanks and with Eoghan and Thomas in the middle pulling the strings we started to penetrate. Eventually Sean Higgins scored with a rocket from 25 yards and from here on Oisin, Jack, Sean (again) spurned chances until Dara finished a sweeping move and we were in the lead. Ciaran Carmody and David Lenihan were now on at this stage to give us some extra impetus and it wasn’t long before we extended our lead. Thomas scored a superb individual effort with 5 to go after beating 4 players on the edge of their box and then shot home with a fearsome drive. With the final whistle about to go too many of our midfielders were caught upfield and Athletic scored a good goal on the break to leave it 4-3 to us in the end. Well done to all our players again on another super performance. Keep it up.
