U10 North: Mullingar Tigers 3 St Josephs 4
St Josephs overcame an excellent Mullingar Tigers team in an open and entertaining game last Saturday morning. St Josephs started very well and controlled the game from the start. It was no surprise when they took the lead following excellent work by Callum O'Brien and Neil Mackin down the left and a great first time finish by Sea Henry at the far post. St Josephs went into the break 2 up, thanks again to another Sea Henry goal after he finished bravely from close range. Sea is certainly in fine form in front of goal at the moment. The second period saw a much closer contest with both teams creating chance after chance and it came as no surprise when Mullingar pulled one back to make it 2-1. However St Josephs were also making their own chances and duly went 3-1 up when Conor Farrell capitalised upon a great free kick from Alex Francis to slot the ball under the advancing keeper. As the game entered the final period and both teams continuing to give it everything Mullingar scored again to reduce the deficit to one goal. Credit to St Josephs however, as they kept going forward and a fine individual goal from Neil Mackin made it 4-2. Game over, or so you thought!! Mullingar had other ideas though, and not only did they make it 4-3 late in the game but they created as many chances as St Josephs in those dying minutes. On the day St Josephs ran out the victors but much credit must go to Mullingar for not allowing St Josephs to play their normal game after dominating the first period. Sea Henry, Ruairi Lenehan, Alex Francis and Conor Farrell put in notable performances with the man of the match on the day being Neil Macken.
Weekend Round-up
St Joseph’s had mixed fortunes in the U10 Texoil Shield last weekend with the Tigers running out 8-2 winners over Willow Pk and the Hammers losing 3-1 to Mullingar.
It’s all still to play for in the U12 cup after our Div1 team lost 3-2 to St Francis in the first leg in Iona Pk on Saturday afternoon. First half goals from Keelan Quinn and James Kilmartin should have laid the foundations for a comfortable away win but a great comeback in the second half by St Francis to has left the tie on a knife-edge going into the second leg in Monksland.
Our U13 Premier team travelled to Barna on Saturday to play for a place in the last 32 of the SFAI Cup. Following excellent runs in this competition in the last 2 years, expectations were high among the St Joseph’s lads, however, despite a second half goal by Jack Connaughton St Joseph’s found themselves on the wrong end of a shock 2-1 defeat.
Community Games
Congratulations to Drum/Clonown U13 five-a side soccer team who made it to the Roscommon final last Sunday in Strokestown only to lose out narrowly to the home town team. The 8 man squad comprising St Joseph’s players Ronan McAlary, Gary Nicholson, Sean Fallon, Harry O’Rourke, Eoin Hannon, Ciaran Lennon, David Griffen and Davis McManus qualified for the final keeping clean sheets throughout and scoring 12 goals on the way. Home advantage sometimes doesn’t mean very much at this age level, however, that was not the case in Sunday’s final. At one stage it looked like Strokestown had a sixth man on the pitch but on closer inspection he turned out to be the referee. This was a closely fought contest with little to choose between the teams and where the first goal was always going to be decisive. Unfortunately the goal came for Strokestown midway through the second half and they held out for a narrow 1-0 victory in the end. The result could have easily been reversed however, had it not been for Drum/Clonown being denied by the post on 5 occasions and finishing with 4 men after a ridiculously harsh sending off decision. Well done on series of excellent performances lads. |