South West U12 & U14 Championship
U14 League Quarter Final
8-7 St Enda’s 3-4
It was double delight for All Saints U12 and U14 footballers on Friday night when they took on St. Enda’s in a championship double header and in an entertaining night’s football the Slemish Park boys emerged victorious in both competitions.
All Saints recovered from a sluggish 1st half to seal their place in the semi-finals. A tight first half in which St Enda’s were a match for the home team ended with a lovely goal from Cal O’Brien which gave the Saints boys a slender lead. St Enda’s had started the half well and a couple of good goals had put them ahead until Tyrone Mitchell netted to keep All Saints in touch. Some basic handling errors and poor choices meant All Saints were conceding to much possession. However when Kevin O’Boyle moved to midfield there was more drive to their performance and this continued in the second half.
A fast start in the 1st 10 minutes of the second half put the game to bed as a contest in favour of the home team. Goals from Mitchell again, Oisin O’Mullan, Ciaran McQuillan and Captain Ryan McCartney meant the St Enda’s boys were facing an uphill battle. To their credit they never gave up and continued to work hard and show great desire to get back in the game. A goal followed to keep the Saints boys on their toes, however the impressive O’Boyle pointed and a few other nice scores sealed the win.
A semi-final place awaits now and a much improved performance over both half’s will be needed against a strong Aghagallon outfit.
U12 Play off
All Saint’s Ballymena 5-05 St. Enda’s 2-04
A great squad performance by All Saints U12’s saw them run out winners by 10 points in the end but this was a much tougher game than the final score suggests.
All Saints went into an early lead by rattling off 1-02 without reply in the opening 8 minutes, until the tide turned and St. Enda’s got a foothold in the game with a point, a couple of defensive blocks that resulted in 45s and a couple of narrow wides. All Saints responded with a well taken Finn Connon goal and two well worked points from defence to attack leaving the half time score 2-04 to 0-01.
St. Enda’s started the second half on the front foot and scored a terrific early goal to bring them back into the game.
The Glengormley boys continued to press but All Saints defence was resolute throughout and a breakaway by the Ballymena boys notched another team score. St. Enda’s weren’t finished and a high ball into the box saw their full forward palm the ball to the net and they were back in the game with only 4 points separating the sides.
A precision kick-out to the half back followed this, and a super interchange of passes saw Lewis Devlin break through from centre back to lash the ball to the top corner of the net to restore the Saints advantage. This score settled the Ballymena boys and two more well taken goals followed just before the final whistle.
Credit to St. Enda’s who fought hard to the end but All Saints march on to the Semi-Final next weekend.
U12 team captains with referee Sean McAtamney (Tir na nOg)