SKECHERS SFAI CUP 3rd Round 14/10/17
Killarney Athletic U12A 0 : 2 St. Brendan’s Park Fc U12A
On Saturday last our U12A team travelled to Killarney Athletic in the Skechers SFAI Cup 3rd round. In the opening quarter of the first half it was pretty frantic with both side looking threatening. We had the better of possession and we were unfortunate not to take the lead when a lovely one-two down our right had side between Aaron Powell and Andrew Kerins saw Aaron through with the keeper and his shot was well saved at the near post from the Athletic goalkeeper. Athletic thought they had an opportunity to score when their striker raced through on Oisin O’Halloron’s goal and as he was lining up his shot in came Immanuel Manu with a wonderfully timed sliding tackle to spare his keeper having to be called into action keeping the game scoreless. We began to control the game more and more. In goal Oshìn O’Halloran hadn’t much to do with Immanuel Manu & James Fisher dominant in defence winning the ball back in what seemed almost every occasion that they faced a direct opponent, with Andrew Kerins(right) & Ciarán Kavanagh(left) bombing up and down the wings at every opportunity, our midfield trio of Nathan Aherne,Bruno Browzy & Aaron Powell controlling the middle third of the pitch and with Seamus Kelly Up front causing a lot of problems to the Athletic defence with his direct running towards the Athletic goal. As legs began to tire towards the end of the half we replaced Aaron and Bruno for Jay Jay Olajitan & Jack Slattery in the 24th min. A tactical switch was needed with Seamus dropping into midfield to replace Bruno and Jack going in as the no.10 for Aaron which meant Jay Jay slotting in up front. With less then a minute of the changes we reaped an instant reward, Ciarian Kavanagh and Seamus Kelly combined down the left to set Jay Jay away, he bust through towards the Athletic goal at a almost light speed with the defenders trailing in his wake, when he arrived on the edge of the box he had the composure and presence of mind to look inside to see Jack who’s movement was superb to find a pocket of space and Jay Jay’s perfectly waited pass to was finished expertly by Jack to put us in front with a fantastic fluid move. We pressed for a second goal before half time, and almost got one when Seamus forced a corner. Jack from our right took the corner right footed, it was almost the inch perfect he floated the ball over to the back post only to see his delivery cannoned off the up right to go agonisingly wide and see us going in at halftime with a deserved 1-0 lead.
