U13: Samphires 2 – 0 Park ‘C’ (Scorer Alex McGrath(2))
Our 13s made their way into the last 8 of the U13 Shield competition last Saturday after a tough encounter against a Park C team which actually was their U12 A team playing up a year. Though we were missing a few at the back, the lads who replaced them did a fantastic job as evidenced by the scoreline. It was an even enough affair overall on the first hot Saturday in a long time. Alex McGrath opened the scoring after 5 minutes with a fantastic free kick into the roof of the net after Paddy Falvey was fouled on the left. We pushed on for the next 15 minutes and Alex doubled our score after some clever interplay by Oisin McGibney and Gearoid O’Connor. The Park played at a high pace throughout and forced us back until the break but Oran Murphy in goals was alert to any throughball and distributed intelligently. Donagh Murphy and Josh Elvins on the right and left back had good jousts with the opposition wingers and both can be happy with their performance. Paddy Walsh and Rory Boyd in the centre were solid throughout and played a lot of ball to Billy Doyle and Barry Hamilton in midfield who were always on the lookout to get forward and provided a link between our defence and attack. The second half was an even affair and both teams played their benches as the heat took it’s toll but the quality didn’t drop as the Park pushed hard to try to narrow the gap and we played on the counter. It finished 2 nil in our favour but well done to both sets of players for and excellent game.