We had a busy week last week with both 17s and 18s playing in the knockout stages of the leagues. The 17s lost 2-1 away to Listowel in the semi-final replay after a really tough battle. On a night when many things didn’t go our way we almost salvaged a draw at the death but a superb save from the Listowel keeper kept us out. We had led 1-0 after Jack Lynch scored at the back post from a Conor Lowe corner. The game was pretty even overall and we couldn’t argue against Listowel’s equaliser after a period of dominance at the start of the second half. We responded and nearly retook the lead a couple of times but good keeping and a couple of offside decisions denied us. With 5 minutes to go after a long series of frees going against us somehow, the home side forced a second. Again we responded but to no avail on this particular night, it was to be Listowel’s victory and we wish them well in the final. Best for us were Austin Clifford, Ciaran Carmody and Christopher Murphy but in saying that all our players gave their very best and left nothing on the field.
In the second match of the week, we played the U18 league final vs Killarney Celtic in Tralee. It was a game of 2 halves with Celtic dominating the first and us the second. For the first 25 minutes we played second fiddle to a very strong Celtic outfit but we actually had the first chance of the match when we kept possession for the first time in the match after 15 minutes and forced a great save from their keeper. Brian O’Regan in goals for us had to be alert after Celtic got a few half chances from corners. Eventually in the 20th minute we conceded after we failed to clear our lines on 2 occasions. We conceded another 5 minutes later from a good individual goal by the Celtic centre forward. This seemed to ignite us and we dragged ourselves back into the game especially with some good work around the middle by Thomas Lenihan and Bobby O’Regan. At the back Austin Clifford, Tommy Lynch, Sean Donnellan and Antoin Stanton got a hold of the ball and we began to build from the back. It was fairly even to half time but the neutrals at the game felt Celtic would not be pegged back and it was hard to argue. The second half was a different affair and we came into it as we pushed for a goal. Our chances became more clearcut as time went on and eventually Oisin O’Brien was taken down for a penalty which Bobby duly scored. The game really got going then and we were quite fortunate with 20 to go that Brian pulled off a great double save which kept the game alive. It was our turn next for some drama when Conor Lowe had a great header disallowed for an offside which was a very close call at best. With 5 to go we eventually equalised when Christopher Murphy scored after a massive scramble in their box. So 2 all and a replay in the next few weeks. Well done to both teams for a great game