Captain, Ian Carthy, receives the trophy from the legendary, Pat Henderson.
Good Counsel, New Ross…5-11
St. Peter’s, Wexford….2-3
Our U-14 Footballers retained the South Leister Schools juvenile football championship ‘A’ title for the third consecutive year with a convincing win over old foes St. Peter’s of Wexford in the decider at St. Patrick’s Park on Friday afternoon.
The victory puts them through to the Leinster Semi-final, and the chance to continue their quest for a remarkable hat-trick of Leinster titles at U-14 level.
Mikey Dwyer opened the scoring for ‘the Counsel’ in the first minute after a great run from left wing forward which was followed up by an equally impressive major from Adam Mansfield in the eight minute. Another point from O’ Dwyer (11min) was followed quickly by a point from one of our two first year players on the starting team, Tadhg Cody (17min). Some impressive forward running and support play resulted in a Joe Sutton point (22min) and another Adam Mansfield goal (23min) before St Peter’s registered their first and only score of the first half, a pointed free (26min). The Good Counsel defence and midfield performed very well as a unit with individual battles being won all over the field. The outstanding performance of capt’ Ian Carthy at centre back and the courageous block of full back Adam Winters (17min) to prevent an almost certain score, were defensive highlights in the first half worth noting. The first half score was 3.4 – 0.1 in favour of Good Counsel.
St Peter’s restarted with intent and caught the Counsel out with a well taken goal in the first minute of the second half. This seemed to spark our boys into life however, and straight from the kick out the ball made its way to Adam Mansfield who appeared to ‘lob’ the keeper from thirty yards at the end of yet another threatening run. The crowd went wild! With our defence on top and our Midfield pairing of Daragh Lyons and Martin Fitzharris in flying form, our forwards found opportunities aplenty. Mikey Dwyer scored an excellent brace of points from distance (36 & 40min), which was followed by a pointed free from substitute Mark Rossiter (48 min). St Peter’s first point from play(51min) was followed by an Adam Mansfield point(52min) before perhaps the point of the day, a Mikey Dwyer long range point that seemed impossible when being tackled by up to three St Peter’s players at the time. The final St Peter’s point (54min) was again followed up by an Adam Mansfield point (56min) before Joe Sutton stormed through for a cracker of a goal after some very good approach play (57mins). Darragh Lyons scored the Counsel’s final score of the day, a point from play which was a good reward for his work on the day (57min). It seemed that the Counsel had started to celebrate too early however when St Peter’s struck for a goal in the final minute of the game. Although the team and subs performed very well on the day they will need to improve somewhat on their teamwork in the final third and get a greater return from their possession, as their wide count of (16) is far too high if they are to go any further in this competition. Well done to all concerned on a job well done and a fantastic result for our school. Also, many thanks to the teachers and parents who accompanied our second year students as supporters on the day.
Counsel Team/Panel:
1. Cian Ó Connor (Cloughbawn) 2.Conor Crosby (St James) 3. Adam Winters (Taghmon) 4. Sean Barden (Adamstown) 5. Evan Murphy (Adamstown) 6. Ian Carthy (Taghmon) 7. Eoin Higgin (Rathnure) 8. Martin Fitzharris (Gusseranne) 9. Daragh Lyons (St James) 10. Michael Dwyer (Fethard) 11. Paul Manning (Tullogher) 12. Adam Mansfield (Mullinavat) 13. Tadhg Cody (Cushinstown) 14. Luke Sinnott (Taghmon) 15. Joe Sutton (Fethard) 16. Mark Rossiter (Gusseranne) 17. Richie Waters(Fethard) 18. John Roche(Gusseranne) 19. Shane Doyle(Taghmon) 20. Eoin Porter(Cushinstown) 21. Daire McGrath(Tullogher) 22. Ciarán Conway(Gusseranne) 23. Liam Stafford(Adamstown) 24. Ore Mojoyegbe(Tullogher) 25. Sam Wall (Gusseranne)26. Martin Doyle(Fethard) 27. Mark O Neill(Gusseranne) 28. Andrew Walsh(St James) 29. Clem Rossiter(Bannow-Ballymitty) 30. Daire Bolger(Cushinstown) 31. Rory Higgins(Rathnure)
Scorers:
Adam Mansfield (3-2), Mikey Dwyer (1-5), Joe Sutton (1-1), Mark Rossiter (0-1f)
Subs / Ionadaí
Mark Rossiter(0-1f) for Tadhg Cody, John Roche for Evan Murphy, Richie Waters for Paul Manning, Shane Doyle for Conor Crosbie, Ciarán Conway for Luke Sinnott
Referee – Pat Kehoe (Carlow).
