Our Under 16 team got a hard earned victory at home to Camp last weekend. Given the weather we’ve been having it was amazing that not only that this match went ahead but we also hosted an Under 12 match and then an Under 14 match, all against Camp. Whenever this team plays against Camp you can be sure of one thing – both teams will create chances. We ended up winning 4-1 but both teams created many chances and 2 of the best performers on the day were the goalkeepers both of whom pulled off some unbelievable saves. In general we felt we had more of the ball but Camp’s direct style caused us problems. Camp had the first real chance after 8 minutes when we failed to clear and they shot narrowly wide. We then forced a series of corners and from one of these, captain David Murphy slotted at the far post. We did very well for the rest of the half and went in 3 nil up with 2 goals from Jimmy Shanahan and David Egan. Our play was good in general but we lacked width and Camp weren’t in the mood to let us pass through the middle without a fight. Fortunately our central players have good technique and were able to penetrate our opponents defence at times. Half-time was welcomed by both teams as the pitch was taking it out of the players who were playing their first game in a number of weeks. We also hadn’t been able to train for the previous 10 days due to our training pitch being too soft and one or two were running out of steam. The second half started poorly for us and we conceded a penalty after 2 minutes but Eoghan in goals pulled off a superb save. Our lads upped their game for 20 minutes and we dominated and should probably added to our total but failed to do so. Our defence of Jamie Hogan, Dylan Ronan, Paul Nolan and Jack Kelliher all had good games and kept their opponents’ potent front players to a limited number of chances. Our 2 wingers of Thomas Dwyer and Sean Higgins both put in good shifts in tough conditions and put in many good crosses. Up front Cian MacGarry had a good game and set up much of the play for his team mates. With 30 minutes left we introduced Louis Ryle and Jack McCarthy on the wings and Thomas Lenihan as a central offensive player and all three gave us good momentum going forward. Bobby O’Regan came on in central midfield and Antoin Stanton in defence and these two also can be happy with their contributions. In the last 15 minutes Camp came more into it and created one or two chances but failed to hit the target or Eoghan saved until eventually they forced one in off the underside of the bar. We countered immediately and actually scored a carbon copy to leave the final score at 4-1.