Our 17s game verses Killorglin was switched to the KDL all-weather pitch for our first game of the new year & the lovely surface in Mounthawk suited our passing game. Following the lions share of possession in the first 45 & a number of very good chances, most of which went straight at the keeper, we managed to win a penalty after Conor O Brien was taken down. As our usual peno king John Ward was being rested after a busy Christmas campaign, Conor stepped up to take the peno himself & despite sending the keeper the wrong way his shot went agonisingly wide for a huge let off for the boys from the banks of the Laune. In fact only for the agility of Jack Rodgers in goals for us we would have gone in at the break one down after he somehow got a fingertip to a top corner effort right on halftime.
The second half saw a much improved performance with a number of changes being made early in the half & after a period of sustained pressure we got our just rewards with Thomas Burke floating an inch perfect shot into the roof of the net on 52mins. Three minutes later it was Culan Sweeneys turn to hit the target after a trademark run saw him beat the keeper from close range for our second. A minute later Thomas again tested their keeper from distance but as he did all day the Killorglin lad somehow pulled off a superb one handed save in the top corner. The flying Adam Ward was unlucky not to score on 60mins but another fine save saw the inrushing Conor O Brien finish to the net for our third goal. By now we were dominating play & time after time the Killorglin keeper kept on getting something on the ball to prevent the fourth but after a Messi like run into the box from our centre-back Shane Jordan (what were you doing there Shane ??) he crossed inch perfect for Aaron Ward to cap a fine performance with a rocket to the back of the net. David Oba our top scorer came off the bench & was unlucky with two efforts which hit the net but were both ruled out for off-side.
A very good team display from all 15 players with our Centre-backs Sean Carmody & Shane Jordan composed on the ball making a dangerous Killorglin attack look ordinary for large parts of the game. The four impact players that came on all played a huge part in the win as we rested & rotated players as most have Kerry U17 trials during the week. The only sour note came almost at full time when Aaron Ward went down with a calf injury which led to him being carried from the pitch. We wish Aaron a speedy recovery & hopefully its a strain rather than anything more serious. Best of luck with all our lads taking part in the upcoming Kerry trials on Tuesday & Thursday this week & next. Training as normal Monday & Friday.
Team: J Rodgers, M Xhemaili, S Jordan, S Carmody, J Donohue, C Sweeney, T Burke, C Higgins, Aaron Ward, C O Brien, Adam Ward, D Oba, J Ward, J O Connor, M Lacey.
MOTM Shane ‘Messi’ Jordan
Match report by Dave Scanlon .
