We moved into t
he last 32 of the U17 FAI Cup last weekend with a 3-2 victory over Rathkeale in horrendous conditions. We started with the benefit of the force 10 and dominated the first half but amazingly at half time we were only 1 nil to the good having missed countless chances, a number of which would be described as tap ins. Our scorer was Sean Collins who together with Sean Donnellan bossed the midfield throughout. In this half our defence did what was required, with our front 6 constantly probing and penetrating but never applying the killer finish. In the second half Rathkeale came into it and had as much play as we did, but against the wind, our through balls held up and we got in behind them a number of times. From one of these we scored through Conor Low from a super square ball from Cormac O’Brien. We lost a goal straight away when a long ball wasn’t defended properly and they scored off a rebound. It was an even affair after this with both teams having a go. After 70 minutes Rathkeale equalised when Brian in goals was deceived by the flight of the ball which in fairness came at him at 100 mph. Chris Murphy up front got injured but we had no more subs to make so he hobbled on in right midfield and did quite well defensively, winning a number of headers late on in our box. At that point it looked like extra time or maybe even a Rathkeale victory but our fellas would not give in and with 5 minutes to go a ball that looked destined to go wide was kept in by Jack Lynch and Conor Low who recycled to Sean Collins, He played an exquisite cross just beyond the keeper and who else but Sean Donnellan came charging through to nearly burst the net for the winning goal. We were under the cosh for the rest of the game but held on through some good defending by the lads at the back led by Ossie Clifford and Ciaran Carmody. Finally, thanks once again to the lads who made teas, coffees, etc after the match – much appreciated.