The 16s travelled to Camp last Saturday for a league fixture. A good day for a game and it was an excellent game. Camp came out 3-1 victors in the end of a good scrap where both sets of players gave as good as they got. Camp are the current league leaders so it was always going to be a tough one. We started against the breeze and for the first 20 minutes it was honours even with defences on top. Our back 5 of Brian O’Regan, David Lenihan, Ossie Clifford, Ciaran Murray and Padraig O’Mahony were in top form ably helped by the midfield quartet of Alan McElligott, Cormac O Brien, Sean Donnellan and Ed Moynihan. Ossie and Ciaran had particularly good games and are forming a very good centre back partnership. Then as we were getting more of the ball, Camp countered and got in behind us forcing a rash challenge in the box leading to a penalty which was duly converted. For the last 20 minutes of the half we pressed well and had some smashing passages of play with Ciaran Carmody and Christopher Murphy up front at the centre of things linking up with our midfielders. Unfortunately we weren’t able to penetrate an excellent Camp defence so 1 nil at halftime. We came under huge pressure immediately in the second half and only a double save by Brian followed up by a goal-line clearance by David kept the score the same. We gathered ourselves soon after, got good possession of the ball and again put some good passages of play together eventually leading to Christopher scoring a great goal after turning their defence inside out and finished with a great shot to the corner of the net. 5 minutes he had another chance but put it narrowly wide. It was Camp’s turn to turn the screw then and on a counter attack they scored after Brian had pulled off a great save. We introduced Jack Lynch and Padraig Donnellan to see if we could anything out of the game and both contributed to the cause. It was to and fro at this stage and we came close on a number of occasions but with 10 minutes to go Camp got another penalty which was hotly disputed but the ref’s decision is final and again they scored to put a gloss on the scoreline. Well done to both sets of players for a great game which was watched by a decent crowd. A happy Christmas to all our players, members and their families.
Footnote: The match took place in the community grounds in Camp where their new all weather facility was on show. It was great to see all the different age groups using the pitch (boys and girls) while we were there. Samphires congratulates the Camp club and the wider community there and wishes them all the best with their new pitch – they’ll be even harder to beat now!