Shamrocks 5-10, Ballygarvan 4-5
Ballygarvan was the venue under floodlights for our final underage game of the season, the U14 football Shied final against the hosts. A large crowd was in attendance to witness what turned out to be a thrilling game of football, played by two evenly matched teams. Conditions were good and both teams soon found themselves to be in plenty of possession. We scored two early points from Dara McCormack and Eoin O’ Flynn but soon found ourselves trailing as Ballygarvan’s big full forward found the back of our net. Our goalkeeper Josh Bartlett was in fine form and pulled off some excellent saves as we weathered the storm. Shamrocks settled down again and full backs Calum Gregson and Robert Barrett were now letting the forwards know that they weren’t in for an easy night. Aiden Brady, Eoin O’Flynn and Evan Browne kicked over some lovely points to draw level with our hosts. Dara McCormack then scored an all important goal to leave us leading approaching half time. Our half back line of Cian Lynch, Michael Foy and Kieran May were performing great stuff against much bigger opposition. Ballygarvan scored with the last kick of the first half to leave the teams level at the short whistle 1-05 to 2-02.
Words of encouragement were spoken at half time and these seen to work a treat as after the first five minutes of the second half we scored 2-01 with scores from Aaron Clarke, Aidan Brady and Cian Lynch to leave a little daylight between the teams. For the next fifteen minutes Ballygarvan came back strongly at us to leave it a two point game in our favour with ten minutes still remaining. Barry O’Mahony was winning some fine ball and his lay offs led to some great points from play. Our earlier substitutions of Luke Jordan and David Herlihy were coming more in to the game and when we scored three points from the booth of Luke Jordan and Eoin O Flynn without reply the gap was five points with time nearly up. Our positional changes were also showing positive signs but when Ballygarvan found the back of our net entering injury time, the dreaded two point margin was still in our favour. A fast goal kick resulted in our half forward of Sam Foy breaking at speed and when the ball was delivered to Evan Browne their goalkeeper stood no chance. From the resulting kick out possession was gained again and back in came the ball for Aaron Clarke to score the killer goal. The final whistle sounded to great scenes of delight from all the Shamrocks players, coaches, parents and supporters. The trophy was presented to Eoin O’Flynn the winning captain who in his speech thanked Ballygarvan, the referee, our selectors and coaching staff and all our supporters.
U14 Shield Winners 2019, 5/11/19
