Samphires 3 
Ballylongford 1 – The 18s played host to a game Ballylongford last weekend in quite poor conditions in Fenit. It was a cold dreary day with a strong westerly blowing in from the sea. We played against the wind in the first half but dominated affairs despite not really getting the ball under control for any sustained period of time. Credit must go to our opponents who were not going to just let us do what we wanted. They harassed us especially in their own half and restricted us to few enough chances in the half. Fortunately for us Sean Higgins up front was in good form and was a threat throughout. After 20 minutes he was rewarded with a penalty after he was brought down chasing a great through ball from Sean Collins. Sean converted the penalty and for the next 10 minutes we pushed on for number 2 but Ballylongford were dangerous on the break and Brian O’Regan in goals made one or two good saves to keep them out. Our back 4 of Darren Chester, Sean Donnellan, Antoin Stanton and Dean Meehan were solid as a unit and gave up few chances but on one occasion a cross was not cleared and we conceded an equaliser. We upped our intensity, if not our quality, and had most of the pressure for the rest of the game. We were guilty of dribbling the ball rather than passing quickly, drawing opponents on to us and they made quite a number of tackles and interceptions. On 40 minutes a good period of play from our lads led to a 1-2 between Sean Higgins and Conor Lowe put Sean in again and he restored our lead. Dara O’Connor followed this with a ferocious shot from 35 yards which hit the bar with the keeper stranded. 2nd Half – We had the elements in this half and most of the possession. We created a few more chances as our midfield got the ball down and started to pass it more quickly. Thomas Lenihan in particular had a fine 2nd half and kept the ball moving in addition to some sterling defensive work.On the wing was Oisin O’Brien who was a constant threat and he set up a number of chances for us and eventually Conor took one of these to put daylight between the teams. Our 3 subs of Alan McElligott, Christopher Murphy and Ciaran Murphy were all excellent when they came on and gave us great energy and quality with all 3 rarely losing possession. We failed to add any more goals to our tally with Ballylongford continuing to compete right to the end. Well done to our fellas on a good win in tough conditions.