South West U14 Football League Semi-Final
All Saints 4-9 to 0-4
All Saints Ballymena are through to the South West U14 League final following a comprehensive victory over a battling Erin’s Own, Cargin at Slemish Park on Sunday. The game, originally scheduled for 12.00 was held up for nearly an hour during to a mix up, the scheduled referee thinking it was at 1.00.
When the action did get under way the South West Feile champions were quick out of the starting blocks as they took the game to the opposition right from the throw in. Flying full-forward Ciaran Campbell led the way with two quick fire points and when Joseph O’Rawe sent his shot under the diving Diarmuid Quinn they were well on the road.
It was to get even better as Campbell continued to stamp his class on proceeding as he raced in for goal number two and even at this stage it was hard to see the visitors coming back into the game. It wasn’t for the want of effort however as the Erin’s Own youngsters put a number of promising attacks together but the home defence was giving nothing away.
Following a Cargan attack the Slemish Park boys broke forward again with the impressive Ronan McKillop racing 30 yards to send over and points from Ciaran Campbell, Harry Wylie and McKillop again saw All Saints move further ahead.
Despite this Cargin continued to give it everything and might have had scores themselves as a number of opportunities flew just wide of the target and then Tom Shivers saw his goal bound shot stopped by a flying kick from Saints keeper, Blake Douglas.
Shivers persistence finally paid off as he split the posts just before the break to leave the half time score 2-6 to 0-1 in favour of the Feile winners but it was hard to see the opposition overturning this lead as the half-time whistle blew.
BETTER START
The visitors got off to a better start to the second half as Tom Shivers punished a foul by Harry Wylie on Eunan Quinn as he sent over an excellent point from 35 yards out. This score gave his side a bit of a lift and it was eight minutes before All Saints registered their next score and again it was powerful mid-fielder, Ronan McKillop who provided after a strong solo run.
Cargan responded with a well worked move up the field with some clever passing only to see their efforts result in a wayward shot from Quinn to the right hand side of the posts. This was to sum up Cargan attacks to date. Plenty of energy going forward with some great movement only for the final shot to let them down.
Not so for the home side who were more clinical in their finishing when the opportunity arose and Tyrone Mitchell put them further ahead with a goal in the 10th minute following another good build up and it looked well and truly over at this stage.
Tom Shivers pulled one back from another Cargin free as the young Erin’s Own side kept plugging away and Shane Gribben followed from the other side as the visitors persistence finally produced some reward.
Back came All Saints through Ciaran Campbell following a mesmerising run through the visitors defence to finish with a fine point and from the kick-out the same player collected and split the uprights again.
Cargin were again struggling to get out of their own half as All Saints pushed up on the kick-out and as they made another turnover the ball fell at the feet of substitute Sean O’Callaghan who ran through soccer style to place it in the net.
Substitute Paddy O’Brien was next to score as he collected a pass to point with his first touch of the game and Ciaran Campbell finished the scoring with a late point to conclude an impressive win for the Ballymena side.
All Saints will probably now go into the League Final as favourites and on the day they looked a side with few weaknesses with Michael Read, Ronan McKillop and Ciaran Campbell worthy of special mention while Connor Kelly, Eunan Quinn, Tom Shivers and Shane Gribben gave it everything for the Toome lads.