Colemanstown U12 Girls 1 – 1 Kiltullagh
On a lovely Autumn Sunday in Colemanstown, our U12 girls kicked off their league campaign. This was the girl’s first experience of league soccer. Despite being short a few players the girls performed brilliantly. The first half was evenly contested. Colemanstown were first to score with some great play between Ciara Somers and Evie Cunniffe resulting in Ciara Somers finding the back of the net. Kiltullagh scored shortly after making it 1-1. Colemanstown girls showed great determination and were unlucky not to score in the second half due to great defending and goal keeping from Kiltullagh. Overall it was a great performance from our U12 girls.
Keeper Lucy Butler made some brilliant saves while defenders Grace Connolly, Aoife Walsh and Niamh Lally played fantastic putting in some great clearances. Midfielders, Maddie Rohan, Evie Cunniffe, Evelyn McDonnell, and Lauren O’ Grady made some great runs and created many chances for Ciara Somers, Ailbhe Burke and Siana O’Grady up top. Not a bad result for a first competitive outing. Match report by Elaine Walsh.
Colemanstown U16s 1 – 2 Ballisodare
Our U16s bowed out of the FAI National Cup at the weekend with a 2-1 home loss to Sligo side Ballisodare. Colemanstown started the better side and took the game to the visitors early on. On 3mins Jamie Nutley found Shane Duffy who saw his effort saved to concede a corner. Moments later Diarmuid Ryan got on the end of David Walsh’s corner but his effort thundered off the crossbar. On the quarter hour mark, some nice play from Sean Connolly at left back, played Cathal Kennedy on the wing who ran towards the end line before tapping back to Connolly who swept a lovely cross into the box but Jamie Nutley couldn’t get the nod on it. The visitors first real chance arrived on 20mins which Fionn Flattery had to be alert to, as Donnacha Walsh added to the clearance.
Minutes later Duffy had a good probing run down the right wing, was floored in the process but David hit the resultant free straight at the keeper. Immediately in the ensuing play, the Ballisodare striker latched on to a long kick out, beat the offside trap but fired well over. As the visitors came more into the game, they volleyed over from close range while a free kick taken from the edge of the D was fired wide. Another well worked Ballisodare move resulted in an opportunistic effort which failed to dip under Fionn Flattery’s cross bar.
As Colemanstown scrambled back into the game, Jonah Donnellan saw his free kick from 30 yards sail straight into the keepers hands. The breakthrough was made just before the break in a well worked Ballisodare move which saw three Colemanstown defenders fail to commit and their striker finished well to the far right bottom corner. Right on the stroke of half time, Kyle Madden was taken down and the Ballisodare custodian had to dive well to keep David Walsh’s free kick from finding the net with a save of the highest calibre.
Colemanstown restored parity 5 mins after the restart when a phenomenal clearing header from David Walsh’s corner saw the towering Diarmuid Ryan lurking to finish the clearance nicely to the net. It was tot for tat for the next 15mins but then Colemanstown lived dangerously as a Balliisadare header ricocheted off the crossbar. Ballisodare went 2-1 up soon after when some jittery defending saw an unmarked player on the edge of the box finish a lovely delivery past Fionn. Colemanstown threw everything they had into the last 15mins. A speculative shot from Diarmuid Ryan was fired straight at the keeper and Jonah Donnellan, unmarked in the box failed to get sufficient power on his header & nodded straight into the keepers clutches. As Colemanstown fired the kitchen sink into finding the equaliser, Ballisodare broke on the counter and Fionn had to go full stretch to make a fantastic stop. In the final passages of play, Colemanstown forced a couple of corners which even saw keeper Fionn Flattery come all the way from his goal line to make an impact and he did get a head to one of the late corners but failed to come up with the goods. In the end, time ran out on a desperately hard striving Colemanstown side.
Squad: Fionn Flattery, Josh Buckley, Diarmuid Ryan, David Walsh, Sean Connolly, Shane Duffy, Jonah Donnellan, Donnacha Walsh, Cathal Kennedy, Kyle Madden, Jamie Nutley, Dylan Murphy, Joshua McDonnell, Matthew Keane, Ronan Screene, Tomas Rogerson, Ross Lally, Sean Cooke.
Colemanstown U19 Girls 0 – 6 Knocknacarra
Our 10 players of U19 Girls travelled to Knocknacarra on Sunday to take on the might of an 11 player Knocknacarra squad. Despite the numerical disadvantage, Colemanstown started unbelievably and actually looked like they were going to score first ! They were in full control of the game for the first 20 minutes but fatigue and 1 less player kicked in ! They showed fierce resilience and were well organised and disciplined. Captain Leah Moran and Lucy Kenny as vice-captain were exceptional leaders and this was Kate Williams’ first ever game with these girls and she did brilliant. Once Knocknacarra penetrated our defence to score their first, this was always going to be an uphill battle with the numerical disadvantage eventually taking its toll. However, the girls held their heads high for the entire game & did everyone proud. Knocknacarra added further goals to finish deserving winners. Squad: Nina Bujak, Ruth Murphy, Shauna Hynes, Katie Delaney, Molly Fahey, Leah Moran, Lucy Kenny, Kate Williams, Sina Schwitalla, Sinead McManus.