Colemanstown travelled to Annaghdown this evening for their first league encounter of the season for our novice U12 team. The first chance of the game fell to Colemanstown’s youngsters within a minute when debutant Luke Williams hit the crossbar with a piledriver. These young guns continued in the same vein of form and opened the scoring on 5 mins following some brilliant ball work out of defence from David Walsh & through the middle from Jonah Donnellan which saw the ball end up at Harry Mitchell’s feet and after some heavy work, his shot from distance found the net as the keeper failed to hold on to it. The hosts had a chance from a free kick but the ball was cleared off the butt of the post by a combined Colemanstown effort of custodian Conor Laffey & central mid Cian Burke. Colemanstown responded well though and some good combination play involving Eanna Burke & Thomas Mellody saw the latter clip his effort over the woodwork while Eoin Keague was a regular threat as striker.
Harry Mitchell & Ciaran Keating both drew good saves from the keeper before Corrib Celtic levelled matters on 24mins as they worked the ball down the flank, cut in around the defence before finishing well to level up the game 1-1 before the break. The 2nd half was only 2mins old when Ciaran Keating’s cracker free kick found the top corner after Adam Cleary was fouled. Adam Cleary drew another great save from the host’s keeper who had to tip a looping effort around the post and out for a corner. Then Cleary was fouled in the box with the defender receiving a yellow card for his efforts while Cleary himself took the resultant spot kick with ease to dispatch it neatly to put Colemanstown 3-1 up 8 mins into the 2nd half. At this stage Tommy Mellody & Jason Rabbitte began to terrorise Celtic’s defence showing great strength and smart foot work on the ball. Jason Rabbitte seen his shot from distance whizz over the crossbar while another effort of his was just wide of the post after Tommy Mellody did the hard work on the end line to get his cross in to the danger area. Nathan McGuire-Greaney and Larry Muravjovs originated the move involving our 4th goal which was added to by Cathal Kennedy and saw Harry Mitchell slide in to finish well in claiming his 2nd of the night and officially put Colemanstown on fire as the host’s defence was rattled.
But wait 4-1 was not enough…. Our boys were on a mission…. A 5th was yet to come. Eanna Burke crossed in to the lurking Jason Rabbitte who somewhat got entangled with the ball at his feet, but released himself to bundle the ball over the line. Almost straight from the kick off Tommy Mellody had a great individual effort but his finish found the butt of the post and immediately afterwards Jason Rabbitte also hit the wood work in a move involving Kilian Hughes. As Colemanstown piled on the pressure in search of more goals, Corrib Celtic broke on the counter attack but Cian Ruane was well alert between the posts. At this stage the subs were queuing to get more game time and it was a numbers game for Lee Murphy to get lads back on the field of play. Numbers 2 & 12 saw David Walsh and Luke Williams re-emerge to finish out the game. 5-1 it finished but could easily have been more. Thanks to the management trio of Gareth Lally, Johnny Lally & Lee Murphy who were slowly making their way home from the Galway Hurlers homecoming. These boys are in action again on Saturday next as they play Moyne Villa at home in Round 1 of the FAI Sketchers Cup. KO 10.30am.
Panel: Conor Laffey, Nathan McGuire-Greaney, Larry Muravjovs, David Walsh, Cian Burke, Harry Mitchell, Eoin Keague, Ciaran Keating, Eanna Burke, Jonah Donnellan, Jason Rabbitte, Cian Ruane, Luke Williams, Thomas Mellody, Cathal Kennedy, Jonathan Keane, Kilian Hughes.