Our youth team sit as table toppers thanks to a hard earned win over Oranmore-Maree at home yesterday. Indeed there wasn’t a whole pile between the sides and it was only in the last 20mins or so that Colemanstown pulled away with 2 late goals. In a see-sawing first half encounter, the hosts had early chances through Mike Mulligan, Alan Naughton, James Barclay & Geordan Kenny and took the lead on 15 minutes as Conor Hibbitt played a nice ball down the wing for Alan Naughton who left two defenders in his tracks before unleashing a cross to Barclay who muscled home the opener from Naughton’s cross. Colemanstown’s defense was galvanised through the hard work of Conal Docherty, Jack Barrett, the green giant Shaun Keane & big Oisin Flannery who were in top class form. Oisin Flannery earned a penalty after a probing run but Geordan Kenny showed he is human with an uncharacteristic miss, whopping the ball not very handsomely over the bar on the half hour mark. At this stage Robert Cosgrove was putting in a heartening shift on the right wing with his probing runs and tracking back to help out his defense. There was a further call for a penalty after Barclay seemed to be taken down illegally but the ref waved play on. The visitors had their first real shot at goal not long before half time but Daniel Glynn made a whopping save as the ball was destined for the top corner. Half time: 1-0 to Colemanstown
In the 2nd half Colemanstown continued in the same vein as Shaun Keane went on a surging run from his own box down the length of the field leaving 5 or 6 defenders in his trail, only to loose the ball on the edge of the box as he was running out of steam. Oranmore made a few tactical switches which added extra impetus to their play but our back four were solid and difficult to penetrate. Daniel Glynn was quick off his line to gather a dangerous looking ball on the edge of the 18’box on two occasions while Alan Naughton wasn’t too far off target with a snapshot from distance before Colemanstown scored their 2nd on 70mins. Naughton gathered a short kick out; put Mulligan through with a teasing cross and although he had two defenders to beat, he made light work of it and cushioned his effort to the net despite the best efforts of the visiting custodian. At this stage Jason Keane, Shane Loughrey, Harry Greaney & Shane Burke were introduced which helped maintain Colemanstown’s momentum as Mark Kirby changed the complexion of the team with 5 at the back, 3 across the centre and 2 strikers. With 10 mins to go a combination of Barclay & Naughton almost breached Oranmore’s defense once more but the ball was eventually cleared from danger by a combined Oranmore effort. No. 3 came with minutes left on the clock after a massive clearance from Shaun Keane in defense fell nicely for Alan Naughton, whose first touch was sublime and saw his precise cross headed goal bound by Harry Greaney only to see his effort parried by the keeper but fell nicely into his path to slam home the 3rd and so Harry claimed his first goal of the season and rounded off a superb team performance with an emphatic win and outstanding attitude and application.
Man of the match goes to Geordan Kenny who typified Colemanstown’s whole-hearted commitment, sliding in to win the ball back on many occasions, finding space where there was none and always looked a potent threat.
Squad: Daniel Glynn, Jack Barrett, Shaun Keane, Conal Docherty, Oisin Flannery, Conor Hibbitt, Robert Cosgrove, Geordan Kenny, Alan Naughton, Michael Mulligan, James Barclay, Shane Loughrey, Harry Greaney, Shane Burke, Jason Keane.