Congratulations to all involved - The U12 Footballers fielded 4 teams across 4 locations on Saturday morning which is probably a first for any age group! The A footballers opened their campaign away to a very strong Castleknock side who finished 3rd in the league last year. We got off to a good start with an excellent point by Conor Hoyne followed up with a goal punched to the net by Denis Smith.
First game away to Castlenock
Castleknock came roaring back and our defence was well and truly tested with goalkeeper Simon Murphy pulling off some excellent saves. We made things more difficult for ourselves with wayward shooting and an inability to pick up breaks in midfield. Thomas and David Lynch drove us forward while Sean Gibson locked down the full back line. We turned at half time only 2 points ahead, 2-4 to 1-5 after Conor Hoyne finished off a flowing move to the net.
The second half was a ding dong affair with Jack Boyne giving a display of game reading at full back, Josh Bannon and Euan Farquarson outstanding at half back and Shane O'Neills kick outs being snaffled by Syls hands. After Denis Smith vollied home following a brilliant Danny Taaffe move we went 8 points clear but again wayward shooting and not tracking runners back allowed Casteknock back in and with 5 minutes left and 1 point ahead we were under the cosh. Eoghan Buckley got on to some great ball and drove us forward where Ciaran O'Connor, making his debut with the A's, cleverly created space and kept things simple. Sean Guiden stepped up to fire over the final score of the game giving us a very hard earned 5-7 to 4-7 victory.
While we have played a lot better a win away is a good start especially against a very good side who posed us significant problems.
I have yet to mention Aaron Coleman who played centre back and gave a display of all the skills of football and then some. One perfect cameo in the first half was indicative, breaking up an attack in our own half he burst through 2 tackles, soloed forward and ballooned over a brilliant score. The best player on the pitch with the ball a magnet to him and skill, strength and commitment in abundance.
Jimmy, Paul and Des will forward reports from their matches.
Ernie
Second game away to Clontarf
The U12B's maintained their impressive start to the season with a hard-fought win against a big physical Clontarf team in St Anne's Park on Saturday. They say goals win games and this was certainly the case in what turned out to be entertaining encounter. The Sylvesters lads rattled the net 6 times while their tenacious defending at the other end restricted the Clontarf to only two, forcing them to kick points instead. A man-of-the-match performance from Conor Hoyne at the back, ably assisted by Euen Farquenson set the tone for the day. Despite been starved of possession for long periods the lads fought hard for everything around the middle and managed go in at the break with a 2 point lead. In the second half we managed to get better quality ball into the danger zone where the goal-poachers had a field day and seemed to cause panic in the Clontarf defence whenever the ball came up. Niall Smyth and Calum Clarke netted a brace each, while Tom Hogan and Ollie Twomey got 1. Daire De Burca came close on several occasions and caused trouble all day with intelligent passing and link up play. The Sylvesters lads just managed to keep their noses in front throughout this cracking second half and the determination from every player to repel every Clontarf attack was admirable. In the end they got their just rewards. Final score - St Sylvester's 6:6 Clontarf 2:11
Team: David Deneher. Killian Bousfield, Conor Hoyne, Euen Farquenson, Andrew Rowe, Tom Bennet, Pierce Clyne, Ciaran O'Connor, Josh Reid, Ronan Furlong, Niall Smyth(2:1),Tom Hogan(1:1), Ollie Twomey(1:2), Daire DeBurca(0:1), Calum Clarke (2:1)
3rd Team away to St Brigids
Our 3rd team travelled to St Brigids all weather pitch for their first game of the season. The game overall was very even but Brigids were a little sharper especially in front of goal and managed to win by 3-3 to 1-1. Sam McCormack, recently back from a foot injury started as Cul baire with Timmy O’Connor in front of him having a great game. Joaquin Shinbach, Craig McGrattan and Man of the Match Cian Smith were superb in breaking up attacks and moving the team forward. Scott Kane (who was denied a blantant penalty when rugby tackled as he was about to pull the trigger) always plays intelligently and created space for our forward line of debutant Karl Murray Perrick, Jake Duffy and Harry Nolan. Daniel Stone and Paul Downey were unfortunate not to put their names on a few scores but we finally got our scoring reward when Timmy O’Connor finished to the net following some great work from the midfielders. Dylan Venner and Matthew Brenner in midfield were excellent in the second half, getting a lot of ball and driving forward while Sean Curran covered the pitch working hard.
Our shooting left us down but also a couple of simple things like delaying too much on the ball and then kicking in to the block, but this was a very solid outing by our 3rd team against a very good Brigids second team, on another day we could have beaten them. A lot of our lads, while with us in the Nursery, are back to us after a few years away and need a bit of work on the basic skills but overall this is a good group of players who will be hard to beat when they get going. Many of those on display are pushing hard for a move up in to one of the higher teams.
4th Team played Castlenock at Bridgefield
The 4th team had the relative luxury of a home match to Castleknock 3rds. Running 4 teams means lots of game time for everyone as the panels are tight but it also means that we have to play against stronger opposition most of the time.
Daniel Fitzgerald, Stephen Brady and Krishna Joyce all worked very hard in defence . Jo Jo Thabo had plenty of possession and scored 1 goal, Conor O'Brien made a welcome return to the colours and scored 2pts. Ben Moriarity, new to the game has great potential as does Conor Ennis. Robert Meehan, Mark Kelly, Adam Ajmal and Michael O’Brien all had their moments and it was great to see Conor Duffy make his football debut as did Danny Liu. We are predictable when off loading, easily blocked and were knocked off ball by similar sized players so plenty to work on.
