Samphires U18s had a great victory at home to Mastergeeha in a repeat of last year’s final which we lost 2-0. This time we turned the tables with a good 5-1 victory against a slightly depleted Mastergeeha team. The scoreline didn’t do justice to a gallant Mastergeeha who went at it from the off and never gave up but maybe did reflect some clinical finishing by our lads with many of our goals resulting from forwards timing their runs and showing good technique in their striking of the ball under pressure. With both teams on top of their respective divisions,North and South, it was a good contest between 2 good motivated teams. We had to be on our guard against very good forwards who were onto everything like a flash. We went 1 up after 5 minutes when Bobby O’Regan rose above the defence at the far post to head home a cross from Oisin O’Brien. We were maybe guilty of overplaying the ball at the back at times and we were robbed in front of our box after 15 mins and in a flash it was in the net for 1-all. We struck next when Thomas forced the ball home from a free from Bobby. It remained like this to the half but Brian had to come to the team’s rescue after a mix-up and only he knows how he kept the ball out. In the second half we kept it tight at the back with Darren Chester, Sean Donnellan, Antoin Stanton, Aussie Clifford and Brian in goals quite solid. In front of them were Luke Moynihan, Bobby and Thomas were keeping the ball quite well and setting up many attacks with their clever play. Sean Higgins and Oisin on the wings were threatening especially in the second half and both were rewarded with well taken goals. Up front Conor Lowe was a constant thorn and kept the opposition defence honest with his hard running. His ability to keep the ball and recycle it was very good and gave us a platform to play in their half. Our 3 subs were super with Christopher Murphy scoring with a close in volley from a low cross from Sean on the right. Ciaran Carmody and Dean Meehan at the back slotted in seamlessly and were calm in possession, turning defence into attack on many occasions. Well done to all for their great effort against a very good Mastergeeha team.