Seniors: Samphires 11 v 0 Castleisland B (Scorers: Ger McCarthy(5), Oisin O’Brien, Chris Murphy, Donagh Murpky(2), Sean Foley, Richard Burke)
A big win by the senior team against a weak Castleisland team. Not much else to say…the scoreline says it all.
Boys U15s: Iveragh 1 v 2 Samphires (Scorers Aaron Harty, Gregory Clifford)
A slightly depleted 15s squad travelled to Cahirsiveen last Saturday for a match that was always going to be a battle. The previous match with Iveragh was a tough affair with nothing between the teams and last Saturday was no different. Iveragh started much better than us and deservedly went 1 up after 15 minutes from a free that was needlessly conceded. We then rode our luck for 10 minutes and were fortunate not to concede a second. Gradually though we started to play with Aaron winning primary ball for us. Kealan and Jack started playing balls in to Michael and Gregory on the wings and we probably should have equalised earlier than we did. Aaron did score for us just before half time from an arrow of a corner by Gregory. 2nd Half…We started well and had most of the possession for the 3rd quarter of the game but Iveragh’s defence held tough to keep us out. In the last quarter the game got stretched and it looked it would be a draw or a defensive error would decide it but with 5 to go Aaron produced some real quality to play a ball around the corner for the onrushing Gregory who calmly slotted under pressure. It was our turn to defend now and we just about held out. Well done to both teams for such a good game, thanks to the Iveragh club who looked after us well and thanks too to the ref who kept a tight grip on a good physical game.
U13 Premier Girls: Samphires 2 v 1 Killarney Celtic (Scorers Nessa Kirby, Elisha Deady)
We played at home against a very strong Killarney Celtic side on what was a wet and cold February. We were under pressure early.Celtic were very strong in midfield and played the wings very well, but our defence was outstanding and dealt with everything Celtic threw at us. We got a grip on the game 10 minutes in and were unlucky not to take the lead twice in the first half. With no score going into the 2nd half we were up against it facing a strong breeze. However the girls grew in confidence and eventually broke the Celtic defence to take a deserved lead. Celtic were dangerous and with 10 minutes left and equalised from a lovely free kick. With only 5 minutes remaining we got a free kick of our own which hit the cross bar and fell in our favour for the winning goal. This was a real quality match with both teams showing off girls soccer to a very high standard and was a entertaining match from the start. Our captain was Siofra Murphy and
GOTM was Isabelle Araiza who had a fantastic game at wing back.
Boys U13s Premier Killarney Celtic 5 v 3 Samphires (Scorers: Mikey Corridan x 2, Cillian O’Brien)
A disappointing performance versus Killarney Celtic. Our defending was poor and naïve and we keep giving away silly goals. We started brightly enough and scored through Mikey but conceded shortly afterwards with a poor back pass. We conceded again shortly afterwards from a attacking corner which led to a breakaway which we again defended poorly. We hit back through Mikey with a fine finish again – 2-2 at half-time.
2nd half we went back in front with a high shot from Cillian O’Brien looping over the Killarney keeper but Killarney Celtic scored three times in last 20 mins to win it but once again mostly it was our poor defending in particular with balls over the top which caused the damage.
Boys U13 Div 2 North: Samphires 0 v 3 LB Rovers
We fell to a strong LB Rovers side in Fenit in the afternoon kickoff. We were poor at the start missing tackles and not passing properly. LB rovers had a number of chances before they went one up with their left winger beating a number of tackles before finishing. They scored again with a neat finish from their centre forward before more missed tackles and lack of pressure lead to a poked third. 3-0 at half-time.
2nd half we were better and created a few chances. We started making tackles and putting on a bit of pressure and should have scored when Cillian Foley was very unlucky to hit the crossbar. Still LB had a few chances and Cillian Burns in goal had a great game.
Christmas Draw (2021): We are still waiting on results from 12 postponed matches from the Christmas period. These are to be played over the coming weeks and months, the first of which is Man Utd v Brighton on Tues Feb 15th….so we haven’t forgotten the competition, we will announce the results give out the prizes as soon as these matches are played.