U16s fail to ignite in goalless draw

Our U16s played out a goalless draw in a tough physical league encounter with neighbours Kiltulla on Sunday at home. Two evenly matched teams failed to ignite although Colemanstown started strongest as Niall McDonagh’s long delivery from the back within minutes of the kick off found the inrushing Jack Donoghue and with just the keeper to beat he fired wide. Kiltulla’s keeper had to stretch well on 10mins to deny a good curling effort from Mark Donnellan from outside the 18’ box. Colemanstown were offered a let-off on 17mins when Oisin Maher latched onto a long ball over the top, stole the pace on the Colemanstown defender before firing wide past the advancing Jason Connolly in goals. Connolly made a good stop on the half hour mark as he was in full command in dealing with a low hard drill and just before the break the Colemanstown lads escaped again as Connolly got his fingertips to an effort to push it over the crossbar.  0-0 at half time.

Changes were made at half time as Didac & Mark Donnellan both went off injured, replaced by the fighting Michael Kelly & Conor Moran on the flank.  The 2nd half started in the same vein, with not a whole pile of rhythm, yet the play was end to end with chances falling to both sides. Jack Donoghue had another chance within 2mins of the restart as he got on the end of Sean Hansberry’s delivery, threw off the shackles of two defenders but again fired wide. Then Sean Hansberry tried his luck from almost the half way line but the keeper parried the ball and there was no one positioned well to pounce on the rebound. 20mins into the half, Conor Moran did some donkey work in midfield to find Luke Lally whose delivery again released Donoghue but his effort again was disappointingly off target. Connolly again made a super save from a well worked Kitulla move which culminated in a Pierce McGurk effort but Jason Connolly was equal to the task. Kiltulla put together another good move and a cross was met by the boot of a sliding striker who just required a slicker touch to find the net.

As the full time whistle neared Colemanstown moved up a gear as Jack Donoghue had to shake off 3 lads and while his effort was parried by Kiltulla’s custodian, Michael Concannon lost his footing at the inopportune time to make certain of the rebound. Colemanstown had a late chance from a Conor Moran corner but it yielded nothing and there was no grandstand finish for either team as the game finished out with a scoreless draw.

Squad: Jason Connolly, Declan O’Brien, Fionn O’Connor, Dara Hansberry, Conor Byron, Michael Flattery, Sean Hansberry, Niall McDonagh, Mark Donnellan, Jack Donoghue, Didac, Michael Kelly, Conor Moran, Luke Lally, Josh McGuire-Greaney, Daithi Colleran,  Ryan Noone (injured)