U12A team begin league campaign with a convincing win

Relive the U12A match report from Saturday’s game against Colga ‘B’ almost as it happened, through Orla McCaffrey’s match report below:

Colemanstown’s U12A team travelled to Clarinbridge to play Colga ‘B’ team in their first league outing this morning.  They piled on the pressure from the off.  With their first attack Joshua Buckley was taken down inside the Colga half, he took the resulting free kick over the top of the defenders into the Colga box, straight onto the head of Darren Moran, who made no mistake to head it into the Colga goal.  1-0 within 2 minutes of kick off.  Both teams played at a fantastic pace for the next few minutes, with the strong Colemanstown defense of Ryan Concannon, James Queeney and Fionn Donohue putting in some super tackles.  Colga managed to level the game by 10 minutes, 1-1. 

Colemanstown’s midfielders Cathal Keane, Conor Walsh and Shane Quirke also tracked back showing their defense and passing skills with Colemanstown’s attackers Joshua Buckley and Darren Moran coming close to scoring  a couple of times.  Colga got a second goal to make it 2-1, 20 minutes in, but this Colemanstown team became even more determined to push on.

Shane Quirke passed a lovely ball into Darren Moran who levelled the game with a well-taken strike, 2-2.  The excellent passing of the Colemanstown boys continued with Colemanstowns 3rd a few minutes later coming from a string of passes through midfield, up to Joshua, into Shane who found Darren Moran’s head again, straight into the back of the Colga net.  Hat-trick for Darren Moran! 3-2 to Colemanstown.  Nathan Mannion joined the defense, hassling the Colga attackers and again getting ball through up front, with Shane Quirke and Joshua Buckley hitting the post and forcing saves from the Colga keeper.  Colemanstown’s 4th came from a long throw from Fionn Donoghue to Shane Quirke who sent it into the Colga box, Joshua Buckley got on the end of it and straight into the net.  4-2 to Colemanstown.  6 goals in 25 minutes, a great game for the spectators.  Joshua McDonnell made a great save from the next Colga attack and played lovely passes out to the defense and midfield throughout the match.    Conor Walsh’s shot on goal hit the crossbar just before the break and it remained 4-2 by the half time mark.

The great teamwork continued through the second half.  Conor Walsh, Cathal Keane and Ryan Concannon continued to support the defense and the passing was superb, resulting in Colemanstown piling on the pressure.  The fifth Colemanstown goal came from a lovely ball in from Shane Quirke finding Darren Moran who forced a save from the Colga keeper, Joshua Buckley struck the deflected ball straight into the net 5-2.  Shane Quirke made it 6 with a super shot on goal, following some great defending by James Queeney and passing from Fionn Donohue.  Colemanstown had a couple of offsides against them and a goal ruled out for offside.  Nathion Mannion’s long throw found Ryan Concannon who made a super pass into Shane Quirke, his shot forcing a save from the keeper and his follow up of the spilled ball found the back of the net, making it 7-2 to Colemanstown.  Colga kept on the attack and Joshua McDonnell and the defense continued to keep the ball out of the Colemanstown net.  A through ball from Cathal Keane found Shane Quirky, who passed it into Joshua Buckley who fed it to the feet of Conor Walsh and in a moment of magic his shot went over the head of the keeper and into the corner to make it 8-2.  Colga pulled a goal back close to the finish with a lovely shot from the Colga striker.  Final score: 8-3. 

This game was played with a great attitude from both teams.  Colemanstown played as a team, supporting each other superbly with each player covering a huge amount of the pitch to help each other out and the passing play was a joy to watch.  The Colemanstown team’s new set of jerseys had their first outing today, kindly sponsored by Buckley Financial Planning, Colemanstown.  Well done to all of the lads on a well-deserved win. 

Team: Joshua McDonnell, Fionn Donohue, James Queeney, Nathan Mannion, Cathal Keane, Shane Quirke, Conor Walsh, Ryan Concannon, Joshua Buckley, Darren Moran.

Coaches: Orla McCaffrey, Fidelma Walsh, Damien Mannion.