On The Counter
Last Saturday we made the long journey to play Dingle Bay Rovers in their pitch near Ballyferriter in an U17 league game. We emerged 2 nil victors after a tough match. The home team harassed us around the middle with the result being we weren’t able to get much good possession. When we did we were dangerous and after 10 mins Cormac O’Brien came close after being set up by Conor Lowe. Soon after this Dingle came into it and had a number of shots from outside our box which were too close for comfort. We weathered the storm and got back to parity in the possession stakes and towards half time Christopher Murphy started to get the ball in space and was putting good through balls in for Conor to chase but good defence by Dingle kept us scoreless. At the back Brian O’Regan (GK), David Lenihan, Ciaran Carmody, Austin Clifford and Dean Meehan were a solid unit and this was the foundation for our win in the end. Alan McElligott and Jack Lynch on the flanks when they got on the ball kept it well and both defended well in front of the back 4. Sean Donnellan and Cormac in the middle had a tough time against 3 but maintained a good shape in the middle especially when the pressure came on. So scoreless at half time. 2nd Half: Despite both teams having played a GAA match the previous evening they gave it their all in the second half and served up another high intensity half of soccer. But as the teams tired we started to get space and Sean and Cormac in particular found some reserves of energy from somewhere to give us the platform to get a lot of attacks going. Chris was the conduit between defence and attack and from there we started to be dangerous. We had a number of efforts cleared before Chris scored after a smashing pass from Conor. We kept the pressure on and were rewarded with super sub Ed Moynihan to continue his recent hot streak when he took possession at the back post, sold a dummy and finished clinically. Our other supersub Padraig Donnellan did very well for us and never wasted a ball. We had a good share of possession as the game wore on but Dingle never gave up and all tackles were keenly contested right to the end. Well done to both teams on a good contest. Finally all the best to Ciaran Murray who got injured for us in our last match – we hope to see him back soon.