Our 16s played poorly but won last weekend. They say this is the sign of a good team – we hope so.The effects of the Easter holidays seemed to have taken their toll. We do try to play a passing game but you need more energy to do that and too many players didn’t come up to the mark. Despite this negative picture we could easily have won the game quite comfortably if we had taken even half the chances that came our way but the lack of a good touch, being a yard away from the ball at the wrong time and just lazy technique let us down repeatedly. Our lads need to have a look at their preparation in the days leading up to games and make a decision if they want to give themselves a chance by preparing well or just turn up and hope for the best. We created 3 or 4 chances to take the lead early on before Athletic had a shot in anger but nobody could apply the finishing touch until eventually Jack Lynch pounced on a rebound from a corner. We came under pressure for a while but were fairly comfortable until a ball over the top caught us napping and their forward got in, rounded Brian O’Regan and scored. It was even stevens till the half but neither team added to their tally. 2nd Half – we started well like the first half when some of our lads started to find their feet and our quality improved. We had a number of chances and just when it seemed certain we would retake the lead from a corner when we had 3 chances to score, we didn’t and were caught again from a long ball to find ourselves 2-1 down 7 minutes into the half. Neither team gave up too many more chances from here to the end but with 5 minutes to go we were launching attack after attack and committing numbers into the attack. Eventually Cormac O’Brien produced a bit of magic and was taken down in the box. Christopher Murphy duly converted from the spot and this took us into extra-time(10 minutes each way). We were probably slightly the better team in extra time and it took us 2 minutes before Jack poached another goal which would prove to be the winner. We had more chances to add to our total but didn’t. It would be unfair on Athletic to say they didn’t threaten. Indeed we were thankful to defenders Brian in goals, Ciaran Murray, Ossie Clifford, Ed Moynihan, Ciaran Carmody and David Lenihan who all performed heroically at times. Sean Donnellan in midfield anchored the team and without him we would have been in big trouble. Alan McElligott and Cormac O’Brien on the ball are a joy to watch and Chris Murphy up front is always a threat. Padraig Donnellan is improving all the time and his link play set up many chances for us. Well done to the lads on the victory but we need to play better the next time.