St. Brendan’s Park Fc U16A 7 : 2 Killarney Athletic U16A
We eventually got our league campaign off to a flying start at home to Killarney Athletic on Saturday with a 7 – 2 victory & even though the margin seemed comfortable it was anything but as the Athletic lads battled until the end with 10 men for much of the second half.
After a very slow start we managed to string some passes together before Mervyn went on a run into the box leaving all in his wake before firing an unstoppable shot to the net for the opening score after fifteen minutes. Three minutes later John Carmody let rip from outside the box for surely a contender for goal of the season to put us two up. Michael Lally then conceded a peno to give the Athletic lads a lifeline before halftime.
Another lovely move involving a Mervyn & John one-two had John score his second of the half to leave us three one up at the break.
That lifeline however lasted just five minutes after Athletics keeper tripped Terence Carmody in the box giving ref Willie Gorman no option but to show him a straight red & Terence’s peno was saved by the sub keeper. Terence had made amends five minutes later with a last touch to his brother goal bound shot to claim the goal. Devon Burns made some fine one on one saves to keep our lead intact while Nick Izehi & Cian Purcell were rocks in defence.
In the centre of the pitch Nathan Holden & Elliot Lynch were winning tackles all over the place while at left back Luke Dennehy looked very comfortable on the ball & provided plenty of options for Darragh Moriarty to drive up the wing.
TJ McMahon came off the bench at halftime to add to the scoring with a lovely finish before Athletic rattled the net for the second time with an unstoppable free from outside the box after we gave away a needless foul. Eventually John Carmody finished off his hat-track after rattling the crossbar earlier with a fine finish with his right. Not to be outdone the midfield dynamo Nathan Holden finished the scoring to leave the final score 7 – 2.
We wish TJ & Jack Kirby speedy recoveries from their injuries, get well soon lads !
Men of the match: John Carmody & Elliot Lynch.
