First years had their first soccer games today playing Blackwater Community School. The first, a Munster Shield round 1 and the second a challenge game, both held at Cahir Park FC.
Munster Shield u14: Final score 3-3
Our first goal came early in the first half. Alex Stuart playing a ball from midfield to Darragh Revutsky on the left wing. The keeper rushed out, Darragh played the ball to Fionn Power who had some work to do to beat two defenders, but with the keeper rushing back, Fionn had only to passed into an empty net. We attacked consistently in the first half, and had a number of excellent chances just off-side involving Fionn and Darragh, again with great link up play. Blackwater had a few chances, Aiden Sweetman, in goal, made a finger tip save from a looping cross. 20 minutes into the half we were comfortable but a throw in for Blackwater made its way across our box without being challenged and in the end an easy goal for Blackwater to make it 1-1. We failed to get back into shape after this, and very soon after we conceded a soft penalty. We were very disappointed to be down 2-1 after a very strong performance in the first half. With only minutes to half time Blackwaters no.10 took a very long range shot from well outside the box and from a tight angle, and somehow it went in top corner. An excellent goal but it left us 3-1 down at half time, when we were the better team for much of the game. In defense Oran Norris and Jack Farrell had been excellent at centre back. Oran had floated in a number of free kicks into the box that our attackers should have done better with. The boys heads could have gone down after conceding and feeling very unlucky to be 3-1 down, but they came back out for the second half with a great attitude.
At the start of the second half, we earned a number of corners, all excellently taken by Bobby Walsh. Ryan Prenderville helped our attack playing out from the back at right back and stopped a number of Blackwater attacks down that side. Joe Barry from midfield found himself in some shooting positions, and Fionn and Darragh continued to drive forward and take shots that seem to be always deflected or saved. We made some changes at this point. Jack Meany and Billy Murphy replaced Ronan Connolly and Alex Stuart. Jack made an instant impact on the left wing. Joe Barry’s shot was saved by the keeper but Jack followed up to slide it into goal to make it 3-2. At this point an equaliser was always coming, we were well on top in the closing stages. We made our final substitution, Michael Keyes came on right wing for Ethan Derby. For the final 10min, we had waves of attack and eventually Fionn Power earned a penalty after he was taken down in the box. Fionn scored it to make it 3-3. Fionn was our captain today and lead by example throughout the second half and we were unlucky not to have scored more and come away with a win.
A great game, end to end at times, but a good start to the boys season against a strong Blackwater side. We look forward to the next game in this round vs Mitchelstown on November 22nd.
Shield Squad: Aiden Sweetman, Alex Stuart, Billy Murphy, Bobby Walsh, Charlie Power, Charlie Skehan, Cillian Long, Darragh Revutsky, Ethan Derby, Fionn Power, Jack Farrell, Jack Meany, Jake Norris, Joe Barry, Michael Keyes, Oran Norris, Ronan Connolly, Ryan Prenderville, Zac Clery.
Challenge game
A very large number of first years take part in soccer training in school every Wednesday and Thursday. For those that did not play in our Shield game we had a competitive challenge game vs Blackwater. Our two goals came from Cillian Long and Zac Clery, both of whom had excellent games. Cillian’s was from outside the box, and was an uncontested cross that made it into the net and Zac’s was a rebound from a saved penalty. Well done to all the players in this game, many of whom do not play soccer at club level. They played very well and held their own against Blackwater. Final score 4-2
Challenge Squad: Adam O'Sullivan, Callum Power, Conor Tobin, David Shannon, Graham Phelan, Harry Garbutt, Ian Hennessy, Jack Kearns, Liam Walsh, Louis Byrne, Mason McKenna, Ryan Crowley, Sahas Sahils, Sam Carroll, Scott O'Shea
