U12 Football vs St. Senans 11.04.19

St. Senans 2-7 NCW 4-2

On Thursday evening our U12 footballers made the short trip to Shanagolden to face a strong St. Senans side. Our lads traveled in numbers with 21 players making themselves available for this fixture. Considering this was our first league fixture of the season, our lads got stuck in right from the throw in and started the stronger side. We got off the mark a few minutes into the game with a very well taken point from Ashton Neville. Our shooting boots deserted us soon after tough and St. Senans began to find their rhythm and it wasn’t long before we found ourselves behind on the scoreboard. During this period some great goalkeeping from Sean Fitzgerald who kept a clean sheet for the first period & some stout defending from Rory Vaughan, Jake Ri Ri, Diarmuid Cremin and the outstanding Conor Lyons kept us in touch. Some great movement and well placed passes brought us back into the fold with Robert O’Grady & and the towering Darragh Tierney providing stability around the middle of the pitch. The ever determined Declan O’Grady, Evan Crowley, James Douglas Normoyle & Adam Nolan worked hard upfront before the latter beat his man and laid the ball on for Jack Gallagher to place it in the corner of the net with a very well taken goal. St. Senans continued to pose serious threat however and we struggled to get ahead even after Jack again found the net with a rasper off the crossbar. At this point Darragh O’Doherty, Cillian McAuliffe, Mark Healy & Tristan Kirwan were providing some security in the back line before Christopher O’Doherty was very unlucky with a great attempt which found the side netting after using his strength to outmuscle his marker. Leon O’Flynn was winning vital possession in the middle of the park before a well taken Sean Lyons penalty gave us hope as we headed toward the final whistle. We were still down by a goal before a quick kick out from Senans was pounced upon by Darragh O’Keeffe. Without losing stride he lobbed the ball over the keeper for brilliant goal making the game a drawn affair with only seconds left. We managed to win the resulting kick out in the middle of the field before working it in to the forward line and just when it mattered Sean Lyons discovered his shooting boots slotting the ball over the black dot to put us a point ahead. Some stern defending followed by our boys before the referee blew it up with the score reading 2-7 to 4-2 in favour of the Magpies. Well done everyone & thanks to all parents for the great support.

Team . Ashton Neville, Conor Lyons, Jake Ri Ri, Sean Lyons, Jack Gallagher, Robert O’Grady (Captain), Darragh Tierney, Darragh O’Doherty, Cillian McAuliffe, Christopher O’Doherty, Diarmuid Cremin, Rory Vaughan, Evan Crowley, James Douglas Normoyle, Declan O’Grady, Mark Healy, Adam Nolan, Sean Fitzgerald, Tristan Kirwan, Leon O’Flynn, Darragh O’Keeffe.