Fenit Samphires – U17 Cup Winners 16/17
Our 17s team captured the county U17 Cup last Thursday night in Mounthawk Park Tralee. Our opponents were Dingle whose senior team were crowned league champions recently. The first half was lethargic after a long layoff since the last game. Defences were on top and both teams set up with one forward and 5 in midfield. The only chance of note in the first half was after 40 minutes when Conor Lowe was put through by Christopher Murphy but he shot narrowly wide past the advancing keeper. The second half was a better affair with both teams now getting into their stride. We felt we probably had a little more of the ball but Dingle were dangerous when they advanced into our half. At the back Brian O’Regan in goals with the Ciaran Carmody, Ciaran Murray, Aussie Clifford and Dean Meehan were a solid unit. In front of them our 2 wide men of Cormac O’Brien and Jack Lynch were up and down the line with the Sean Donnellan and Sean Collins in the middle very industrious. Christopher in front of them provided the link to the front where Conor was always dangerous and proved to be a key player as the match unfolded. Afetr 60 minutes Conor on the right took on the full back and got into the box . Their defence had to come to him but mistimed the tackle to give us a penalty which Conor dispatched into the net. 10 minutes later Conor’s corner from the right found Cormac who powered home number 2 and it looked like game over. But Dingle to their credit came back into it with great determination and no little skill. Their clever play through the middle caused us all sorts of problems and the 2 Seans were at 100% to try to keep them away from our back 4. Eventually they forced a series of corners and scored from one of them. We introduced our 3 subs of Ed Moynihan, Padraig Donnellan and Alan McElligott at about this stage. Alan at the back was calm when we needed it and steadied the ship. Ed worked his socks off on the wing and was always dangerous when we attacked but it fell to Padraig to finish the game as a contest with 85 on the clock when he rounded off a move involving 5 of our players. So a fantastic end to a long season which started for us 12 months nearly to the day. Great credit to the players for their efforts not just on the night but throughout the season both at training and in the matches they played.
Our squad this season was Brian O’Regan, David Lenihan, Ciaran Murray, Alan McElligott, Ciaran Carmody, Austin Clifford, Dean Meehan, Cormac O’Brien, Ed Moynihan, Sean Donnellan, Sean Collins, Jack Lynch, Padraig Donnellan, Christopher Murphy (Captain) and Conor Lowe.