Denny Premier A
St Brendans Park- 3
Fenit Samphires- 5
Oisin O’ Brien (4), Rob Prendeville
Our seniors kept their good season going with a hard fought win over a decent Park side in Tralee on Tuesday evening. Having lost out in our previous league meeting we knew that a win was needed to keep our challenge for a top 2 finish on course. We started very brightly and Bill Mullins and Oisin O’ Brien on the wings were causing problems for our opponents any time they had the ball. We created a number of chances early in the game and Oisin opened the scoring when he finished calmly after being played in behind the defence. This settled us down a bit and Oisin grabbed his second shortly after when he volleyed home after the ball broke to him in the box. We should have kicked on from here but we conceded almost straight from the restart to give our opponents a glimmer of hope. Our back four of Sean Allen, Peter McCarthy, Darren Lynch and Rob Prendeville had defended well up until this point and Barry Galvin in goals looked comfortable. Rob grabbed us a third when he headed home from a corner. Our two goal lead was restored but we conceded again before the half when we failed to clear a corner and Park forced in a scrappy finish. We kept probing for more goals with Ivan Parker up front holding the ball up brilliantly, bringing others into play effectively. Oisin grabbed his hat-trick when he was taken down inside the box and he dusted himself down to finish from the penalty spot.
With our two goal lead restored we should have been able to go and dominate the second half. This was not the case though as our opponents grew into the game with some very clever link up play through the centre of the pitch. Daniel Clinton, Pa McCarthy and John Moran were then forced into defending a lot during the half, which they did well for the most part. Klaudio Dema and Bobby O’ Regan were introduced as we started to tire but we really struggled to keep the ball when we won possession back. Park grabbed a third goal late in the half and they pushed to try and get an equaliser. They very nearly got their fourth but Rob made an outstanding last ditch tackle to deny them. We then grabbed a fifth to seal the game as Oisin scored again after we broke quickly. All in all this was a great win for us but we need to learn how to kill off a game when we’re in front if we want to better ourselves. Thanks to the Park for a tough game which was played in very good, competitive spirit. Thanks also to Del O’ Shea for officiating.
Training again on Friday night with a game away to Castleisland on Sunday morning.
Forza Samphires!