Community Games: A great day last weekend for Spa/Fenit/Barrow/The Kerries Community Games represented by girls from our u13,u14 and u15 Fenit Samphires teams as they won all 3 games today in Milltown in the u15 futsal competition and will now represent Kerry in Munster. Well done girls!
Senior Men: Greyhound Bar Cup – Samphires A 1 v 2 Killarney Celtic A (Scorer Keaven McElligott)
Its a first round exit in the Greyhound Bar Cup for our seniors but it was performance all players can take great positives and momentum going into the business end of the season. The first half we battled hard and despite not creating a whole pile we kept the visitors at arms length throughout the half with our manager Peter McCarthy making one great save as our reserve goal keeper again. We grew into the half and caused a few problems and were well worth the draw at half time.The second half was more of the same with every player giving it all they had. Killarney huffed and puffed but again didn’t create a whole pile until around 70 minutes when their forward snuck in behind or defence to put them 1 up. We refused to drop our heads and instantly replied when Sean Allen sent in a brilliant free kick for Keavan McElligot to finish from close range. Unfortunately Peter got injured in goals and Declan Doody had to go in as last resort replacing what already was our last resort goalkeeper. Killarney soon punished us again with 10 minutes to go and despite our best efforts to equalise again it wasn’t to be. A tough loss to take but only positives to take from a great battling performance,
Senior Men Mainebank B 0 v 1 Fenit Samphires B (Scorer:Klaudio Dema)
In a tense and closely contested match on Sunday morning, we emerged victorious away from home with a dramatic 1-0 win over Mainebank. Both teams had their chances throughout the game, with Mainebank coming close on several occasions and us creating some dangerous attacks. As the match seemed destined for a goalless draw, Samphires stole the points in injury time. A late press from Sean Dowling taking the ball from the Mainebank goalkeeper then lead to a Klaudio Dema goal with virtually the last kick of the game in the 92nd minute, sending our players into jubilation. Despite a late push from Mainebank, they couldn’t respond with very little time left and we secured a crucial away win in the race for promotion.
Senior Men: Celsius Menswear Challenge Cup Samphires A 4 v 0 Castleisland B (Scorers: Sean Allen Dylan Flynn Ger McCarthy JJ Prior)
Our senior A’s progressed to the quarter final of the Celsius Menswear Challenge Cup with another solid performance. The game was a scrappy battle throughout the first half with Fenit going in at the break 1 up after a Hugh O’Callaghan corner caused a bit of pinball resulting in the ball bouncing down off Ger McCarthy for Sean Allen to strike. The goal gave us confidence and more control in the second half and it didn’t take long before Dylan Flynn slotted into the far corner after Castleisland struggled to clear their lines. This was soon followed up by a towering Ger header from Sean’s pinpoint cross. The game was put out of Castleisland’s reach when Richard Burke put JJ Prior through who finished on his second attempt. Another good result and clean sheet as we prepare to welcome Killarney Celtic in the Greyhound Bar Cup next Sunday.
Girls U15s: Samphires 0 v 4 Listowel Celtic
On a rough evening in Fenit our girls gave it their all and unfortunately came out the wrong side of a highly competitive game. That is our last game of the season and as usual these girls gave it their all everytime they wore the Samphires jersey! Well done girls!
Boys U14s: Samphires A 2 V 0 LB Rovers B (Scorers:Evan Neary, Josh Ennis)
Despite not being at our best, we overcame a resolute LB team last Satuday with 2 first half goals. We did create a good number of chances in the second half but some fantastic goalkeeping, brave defending and the woodwork prevented us from adding to our tally.
Boys U14s: Samphires B 1 V 5 LB Rovers A (Scorer: Darragh Griffin)
Our B team, which comprises a good few U13s were poor again this week aginst older opposition. The higher pace of the game repeatedly caught us out and our defending is not where it needs to be. Our keeper Gerard, despite the score, was our man of the match and rescued us with some brave goalminding.
Boys U13s: Samphires Black 5 v 2 Tralee Dynamos (Scorers: Aron Keating, Daniel Lawlor, Kian Skyrtny, Ben Stack, Noah Slattery)
Our U13 Green team played Park U13B in first round of the cup in a “blustery” Samphire Park this afternoon coming out on top of a 5-2 win with goals from Aran, Daniel, Kian Ben and Noah sealed the win and a really solid performance all.
Boys U13s: Samphires Black 3 v 5 Tralee Dynamos (Scorers:Luke Dillon, Eoghan Farelly, Liam Burns)
Our U13 Black unfortunately bowed out of the cup on the wrong end of a 5-3 defeat by Dynamos. Goals from Luke Dillon, Eoghan Farelly and Liam Burns were not enough to counter a good Dynamos team that caught us on the break a number of times and only for the heroics of Dara McCarthy it could have been a lot worse.
Boys U12s: Samphires 1 v 0 Killorglin (Scorer: Óran Flaherty)
The 12 A team got a win in the first round of the cup with a goal from Óran from left back in a close game. Good to see the lads get a win as a reward for all the hard work they put in at training.
Boys U12s: Samphires B 4 v 0 Castleisland C (Scorers:Liam Bunyan, Eoghan Gilligan(2), Luke McCann)
On Saturday our U12 Div.1 team played the opening round of the John Murphy shield/trophy competition at home to Castleisland. A lot of our players were away on Community Games duty, but we were able to rely on the services of some players from our U9 & U10 boys and U13 girls squads to fill the places left by the missing players. We settled in to the game, playing with a strong breeze in the first half. Plenty of running up the wings from Tomás and Luke Mc put pressure on the Castleisland defence and resulted in a good few corners. Good deliveries into the box from Josh and Eoghan gave us a few chances, and we were unlucky not to score in the opening stages. Shortly before half time Bobby Morgan (U10) went on a solo run up the left wing and crossed low into the box for the on-rushing Liam Bunyan (U9) to finish from close range, which made it 1-0 at half time.In the second half, we played against the wind however this seemed to spur us on to put more pressure on Castleisland. Great attacking play from Johnny Dowling (U10) and Eoghan Gilligan and Josh Duffy created more chances and resulted in a brace of goals for Eoghan Gilligan. Meanwhile Mia Falvey (U13) played a stormer in centre back in front of her brother Luke, and aided by Eoin Corridon and Leighton Murphy on either side.A late goal from. Luke McCann’s goal was the icing on the cake on what was a solid performance for this team. We are in the draw for the next round of the competition so we’ll done to all!! 
Special thank you to the U9, U10 and U13 players that played up yesterday and all contributed to a great performance. It is also worth noting the 2 sets of siblings were playing on the team – Mia and Luke Falvey, and Tomás and Liam Bunyan.
Boys U12s: Listowel B 6 v 0 Samphires C
Hard luck to the 12Cs who gave their best last Saturday out in Listowel. Despite being short a couple of regulars, our lads battled right through. Great to see them train and play week in and week out. Well done to them and to their coaches for driving them on.
Boys U10s: Our Under 10 Boys (white team) welcomed MEK to Ardfert this afternoon for the final game of their Phase 2 series. A fantastic performance from the Samphires boys with excellent teamwork from back to front brought this part of their season to a successful end. Thanks to MEK for making the journey and for a sporting and well contested game.
Boys U9s: We hosted Tralee Dynamos, LB Rovers, and Listowel Celtic last Sunday for a blitz. The weather was beautiful, a perfect day for the kids to be out playing football. All the teams on show gave good displays and it was interesting to see how much the teams had come on since we hosted the same teams 6 months ago. Well done to all involved, especially Sarah, who have gone to great lengths to make sure today, like every Sunday, ran well. Thanks too to Mike, John and Paudie who brought 4 sets of goals from our pitch in Fenit to Ardfert (and back to Fenit afterwards, 5 hours later!). We had 4 games on the go all the time. Thanks too to the coaches, refs and stewards and all who helped in so many ways.
Boys U7s: Our U6 and U7 boys kicked off early this morning when they welcomed Tralee DynamosLB Rovers Soccer Academy and Listowel Celtic to Ardfert for some small sided games. Well done to all the players and thanks to those who helped out on the day.