Under 17s Draw Away In Mastergeeha

Our Under 17s had their first match in a number of weeks away in Mastergeeha last Saturday. Despite the very poor weather we’ve been having the pitch was in first class condition. The conditions were blustery with a strong cross wind making it difficult for the players. Nevertheless both teams did their best to serve up a decent game. We probably had more of the play and chances overall with Bobby O’Regan,David Egan and Gary Nolan having very good games and were a bit disappointed not come away the 3 points. On the other hand our propensity for giving away soft frees near our own penalty gave them a lifeline and they always looked dangerous from frees and corners. The game took on a pattern that we would see us have plenty of the ball with our opponents chasing us and we had some good play down the wings through Thomas Dwyer and especially Frosty Ronan. But when they got it, at times they were dangerous on the break and after about 20 minutes it was on one of these attacks that we conceded to a simple ball through the defence which was well finished past Eoghan in goals. Within 5 minutes we were level after a sustained period of pressure forced an erroneous backpass which was intercepted by David Murphy who scored a poacher’s goal – 2nd Half – We probably had even more possession for a lot of this half after the rustiness of being without a game for a few weeks wore off and had a number of chances and half chances but failed to capitalise. Mastergeeha did give us a few scary moments but our defence of Padraig O’Connor, Jamie Hogan, Paul Nolan and Jack Kelliher held firm. Eventually Oisin O’Brien slalomed his way through their defence and was taken down for a penno which Bobby O’Regan put away with authority. For about 10 minutes after this the game swung both ways but a free was needlessly conceded near our box and we conceded from the resultant cross. We pressed on for the rest of the game and even went to 3 at the back but couldn’t force a winner despite some good work by Sean Higgins and Luke Dalton both who had come on for a couple of injured players. It ended 2 all. Well done to both sets of players for giving us such a good contest.