Western Gaels 6-8, Shamrocks 2-4
A long year finally came to an end on Monday afternoon last in Dripseys field as Shamrocks u15s were knocked out of the East Region C Championship by Western Gaels who go on now to meet Clondrohid in the final. It being a month since Shamrocks beat Grenagh in the Quarter Final was a disadvantage as we’d been waiting around for Western Gaels to be available to play the game.
Western Gaels, a combination of Kilmichael and Úibh Laoire (Inchigeela) were simply able to score goals at regular times, 3 in each half while Shamrocks, despite having as much possession, found it way to hard to burst the net and the game was over as a contest long beore the finish. Shamrocks scored an early point through centre forward Alex O’Sullivan before some sloppy play in the forwards let Western Gaels in for a quick fire 3 goals. 2 of the goals came as a direct result of the Shamrocks forwards messing around in the forwards and the Gaels worked the ball up the pitch at speed to slice through the Shamrocks overstretched defence. Three times they did this and it really was the defining moments of the game as it hepled them open up a 3-4 to 0-3 halftime lead and also knocked the stuffing out of Shamrocks. The Shamrocks lads started to go for goals from a long way out which was inadvisable – they actually tried to walk the ball into the Western Gaels net but found a combination of last gasp defending, some excellent goalkeeping and downright poor finishing and option taking against them.
Shamrocks needed a good start to the second half but after a chance of scoring a goal within 30 seconds was completely wasted, and Western Gaels went down the field to show the Shamrocks lads how its done by sticking the ball into the top corner of the Shamrocks net, it was game set and match. The heads hit the floor for 10 minutes and Western Gaels added another 2 piledrivers to their tally. Shamrocke to be fair were suffering from attack after attack brwaking down at the 21 yard line and despite David Andrews and Alex O’Sullivan scoring 2nd half goals, were a beaten team well before the finish.
The season started way back in February and its been a long road. The break will hopefully do some of the players and mentors good. The mentors Patrick Andrews and John Twomey (Ringaskiddy) would like to thank the players and to the parents for their committment, featuring longer road trips due to the restructuring of the underage sector. We hope to see them all again next year.
Panel on duty – D. Raleigh, S. Kidney, S. Kelleher, B. Crowley, B. Coffin, C. O’Grady, R. Horgan, D. Scriven, A. O’Sullivan, A. Boland, P. Murphy, T. Murphy, C. Scriven, N. Hayes, M. Hitchmough, A. O’Grady, E. Horgan, C. Hayes.
