Under 13s Stymied by Athgarvan in Final

Post date: Oct 8, 2016 8:25:29 PM

Our Under 13s left everything on the field, however came up short against a very competitive Athgarvan team in the under 13 final this morning.

Having lost out to the same opposition in the earlier rounds, our lads knew that they would be up against it, but they were up for the challenge.

After a tense few opening few minutes, a couple of early points settled the Athgarvan lads, Cian Murtagh and John Kelly pulled us level soon afterwards. Athgarvan almost found the net around the mid-point of the half, a fine save from net minder Sean Fitzgerald deflected the ball over for a point.

A great move starting in the Kildangan defence then produced the only goal of the half. Colm Coughlan intercepted a pass in our full back line and cleared to Oisin Irvine who found Cormac Finnegan in space. Cormac played a long ball to Rory McGrath in the full forward line and he flicked a neat pass to Cian Murtagh who placed a low shot into the corner of the Athgarvan net.

We had chances to increase our lead in the next few minutes, ourfailure to put scores on the board would eventually prove costly. The last few minutes of the half were dominated by the men from the Curragh as they added four unanswered points to put them 0.7 to 1.2 up at half time.

Athgarvan showed their intent on the re-start hitting the crossbar within seconds of the throw in. A Mark O’Donovan free pulled Kildangan to within a point and the same player had a goal chance go just wide from the resulting kick out. Athgarvan increased their lead to two and then scored a goal against the run of play to go 1.8 to 1.3 ahead. Things could have been worse but for some fine play from Kildangan keeper Sean Fitzgerald.

Kildangan dominated the next ten minutes but just could not score. Joe Walsh, Thomas Browne and Luke McKenna all went agonisingly close to finding the net, however the ball just refused to go in. Having weathered the storm, Athgarvan took control once more and finished the game with 1.4 in the final few minutes to run out winners on a score line of 2.12 to 1.03.

The final score does not reflect the game but we would have to agree that, on the day, the better team won. The difference in the end was that Athgarvan took their chances and we didn’t. It was a great achievement to get to the final but they were disappointed to lose. We played some great football to get there and there is great potential in this team.

Kildangan; Joe Broughall, Thomas Browne, Eoin Callan, Colm Coughlan, Beau Delaney, Alan Donoher, Cormac Finnegan, Sean Fitzgerald, Oisin Irvin, John Kelly, Rory Mc Grath, Luke McKenna, Cian Murtagh, Mark O Donovan, Cian O Dowd, Michael O Toole, Cian Reilly, Calieb Schofield, Robert Wall, Joseph Walsh