Match Report by Declan O'Keeffe

Our U12 football season came to an end on Friday night last in UL under floodlights. The 2019 season finale proved to be a great spectacle with multiple final medals up for grabs in a festival of football in front of a great crowd on a state of the art Astro surface in the Castletroy campus. Our lads faced up to a strong looking South Liberties outfit & to say that our boys left the best till last would be an understatement. From the first whistle they played football that seemed beyond our ability earlier in the year. Strong support running along with accurate passing & shooting meant that we took an early lead with Darragh O’Keeffe getting us off the mark after less than a minute with a well take point off his left. We settled very quickly and with tigerish defending from Rory Vaughan,

Leon O’Flynn, Sean Lyons, Conor Lyons & our outstanding captain Jack Gallagher shoring up the back line we looked favourites to run out winners even at this early stage. Scores were coming frequently and with Darragh Tierney & Tristan Kirwan rampaging from midfield into attack we had the opposition under constant pressure. Up front Paul Logue, Darragh O’Keeffe, Cillian McAuliffe, Darragh Doherty & Sean Fitzgerald were full of running and we always seemed to have a passing option for the player in possession. When the South Liberty boys did manage to break through, the brilliant Ashton Neville with 2 point blank saves in goals provided a safe pair of hands and his distribution was top class. Halftime saw us ahead 3-4 to 1-0 after our best half of football all year.

Mark Healy, Diarmuid Cremin & Jake Ri Ri all seamlessly stepped into our backline with Evan Crowley, Packie Ryan & Declan O Grady adding some fresh legs to our attack. These lads continued where the others left off with Declan O’Grady adding 2 well taken goals and by the time the referee awarded 2 late penalties against us we were out of sight. The final whistle came soon after to the elation of our young magpies with the scoreboard displaying NCW 5-8 South Liberties 3-4.

Captain Jack Gallagher accepted winners medals on behalf of his team mates but said he is saving his speech for the official end of year presentations.. I would like to thank all parents who made the trip. 8pm on a Friday night is not ideal but once again you proved yourselves to be the dedicated parents that every club needs.

Team and scorers

Ashton Neville, Leon O’Flynn, Rory Vaughan, Jack Gallagher (Captain), Sean Lyons (0-2), Conor Lyons, Darragh Tierney (1-1), Tristan Kirwan (1-0), Darragh O Keeffe (0-2), Paul Logue (1-1), Cillian McAuliffe, Sean Fitzgerald (0-2), Darragh Doherty, Declan O’Grady (2-0), Mark Healy, Diarmuid Cremin, Jake Ri Ri, Evan Crowley, Patrick Ryan.