U11 Cup Qtr Final: St Josephs 6 Willow Park 0
St Joseph’s proved too strong for a gallant Willow Park team in this highly entertaining cup game. To their credit, both sides tried at all times to play the game as it should be and the outcome was some great free-flowing passing football from these young lads. The visitors defended well initially, but four goals from Ciaran Lennon, bringing his tally for the season to about 386!!, together with scores from Rory Barrett after a great left-wing move and Damien Duff with a fine left-foot finish, gave St Joseph’s a comfortable passage to the semi-final. The home team used the width of the pitch well and a feature of this game was the fantastic combination play of Kevin Kelly and Damien Duff on the right wing and of Rory Barrett and Darragh Kildea on the left. Eoin O’Neil was back to his best at centre-half and with Harry O’Rourke and Niall Connaughton linking the play from midfield, St Joseph’s played with a swagger again after a recent dip in form. Niall Fowler continues to impress in goal, Sean Fallon and Rory Lennon were sound in defence and Ian Naughton, James Kilmartin and Brian Hannon were always dangerous going forward.
U11 7-A-Side Shield Semi Final: St Joseph’s Beavers 2 AC Celtic 1
End to end play and plenty of goalmouth action characterised the first period of this game. The deadlock was broken on the 10 minute mark after a great passing move by St Joseph’s resulted in the ball falling to Evan Warby who smashed home a great shot after his initial effort could only be parried by the Celtic keeper. The lead was short lived however, as the visitors equalised just before the break. In the second period St Joseph’s had the better of the play however they failed to capitalise on several good chances and the scores remained level going into the final third. The effort put in by both sides in the early part of the game began to take its toll in the final period, however Ruairi Lenehan found renewed strength with 5 minutes remaining and showed great skill to break through the defence and coolly slot home the winner. St Joseph’s defence held strong in the dying minutes and the home side came away with another well deserved but hard fought victory. Well done again lads.
Well done to all from club sponsors Athlone Springs Hotel. |