Abbey Rangers Under 21 Update-Semi Final Beckons

Abbey Rangers Under 21s play Ardclough in a Championship Semi-Final on Sunday 29th in Ballyteague with a 2pm throw in. The quarter final was a hard fought victory over Kill at Ballykelly on Sunday afternoon last.

The Ballykelly/Kildangan lads got the perfect start with Eoin Whelan, Ryan Moran and David O’Neill all pointing to put Rangers three up in the opening minutes. Kill soon settled into the game and equalised by the mid-point of the half with our lads struggling to keep up their early momentum.

The decisive score of the game came when Dermot Hickey got on the end of a move involving Robert McGrath and Ryan Moran and finished low into the corner of the net to put us 1.3 to 0.3 up.

Moran pointed almost immediately afterwards, however Kill again reduced the advantage to just a point as we neared half time.

Our lads pushed hard for the final few minutes and Brian Day hit a superb point before Ryan Moran and David O’Neill again scored to leave Rangers 1.7 to 0.6 up at the break.

We were then dealt a blow when midfielder Eoin Whelan could not resume for the second half due to an injury picked up just before half time and Kill seemed to take advantage as they dominated the third quarter of the game.

An early Kill point was cancelled out by midfielder Robert McGrath but Kill scored twice again to reduce the deficit to two. Some great defending from Conor Perry and Cian Stafford in the Rangers full back line kept the Kill scores to a minimum while Luke Barry was a commanding presence at centre back.

As we entered the final ten minutes of the game, Rangers seemed to have weathered the storm as our lads kicked on and outscored Kill by five points to nil. Ryan Moran and Dermot Hickey knocked over two each and Robert McGrath got his second as we ran out winners on a score line of 1.13 to 0.9.