Post date: Oct 24, 2016 7:00:35 PM
Abbey Rangers Match Reports 22nd/23rd October
It was a busy weekend for Abbey Rangers with the under 15’s, 17’s and 21’s all in action within the space of 24 hours.
Under 17’s – Abbey Rangers v Castlemitchel
The 17’s were first up on Saturday evening playing Castlemitchel in the first round of the U17 League in Ballykelly. Our lads showed signs of rustiness and allowed the visitors to build an early lead that they held until the finish.
Daniel Cawley and Cian Stafford were superb in our defence and held us together at a time when we were struggling.
Stephen Keogh pushed forward from centre back to knock over a couple of fine points to keep us in the game while Brian Day, Robert McGrath and Michael John Prendergast were battling hard around the middle to keep the supply of ball going inside.
At six points behind at the break, our lads fought hard in the second half but the six point gap remained as the game finished 1.11 to 0.8 in favour of the visitors.
Under 21’s – Abbey Rangers v Kill
With this competition being straight knock-out, the pressure was on both sides to produce the goods on a cool crisp Sunday afternoon in Ballykelly.
We had the best of starts with a Robert Hanley goal in the opening minute before Adam Fogarty and Hanley again got on the score sheet with some well taken points. We then had a potential turning point in the game when Lee Moore put a penalty wide of the target and from the resulting kick-out, Kill raced down the field to score a superb goal.
Ryan Moran soon picked up the pieces as Luke Barry put him through for a goal in the next play and he had his second just minutes later to put us firmly in control. At half time we led 3.6 to 1.0.
Early goals from Stephen McNally and Lee Moore put Kill out of sight and Robert Hanley got our sixth as the game died out. Eoin Whelan and Robert McGrath combined to put Dylan Kavanagh through for a superb long range point and Eoin Whelan capped a fine performance with a late point to leave it 6.11 to 1.3 at the final whistle.
A semi-final awaits against St. Edwards and our lads can expect a much tougher challenge.
Well done to all of our teams who put in some really good performances in both victory and defeat. While we would love to have won them all, two wins from three games was a good return.