Our reserves were back in action after their long Christmas sojourn against neighbours Athenry at home on Saturday. They maintained their recent form and looked good and sharp even though in the end they only came away with a share of the spoils in a 4-4 draw. Stephen Rabbitt opened the scoring after 5mins with a perfectly executed header from a Ronnie Geraghty corner to claim his 3rd goal this season. Athenry levelled matters 10mins later with an exact replica – a header scored again from a corner which left Joe Flannery in goals with little chance. Athenry then went 2-1 up after a good build up with a low hard shot from the edge of the box. 5mins later Shane Bailey restored parity and stifled Athenry’s momentum with a cracking goal as he got on the end of a ball at midfield, rounded 2 defenders while his smashing shot from 30yards found the top corner. Newcomer Kevin Reilly then found himself one-on-one with the keeper but fired wide. His next attempt though, he made no mistake as the ball fell kindly to him on the right side of the field and his drive from the edge of the box found the bottom corner not long before half time. 3-2 at the break. Early in the 2nd half, Colemanstown got a more solid grip on proceedings when Kevin Reilly switched play from the right side of the field across to Gerry Grady who was lurking on the edge of the danger area and scored our 4th of the game and his 12th in 10 games to put Colemanstown 4-2 up. With 20mins to play Athenry pulled one back with a header from a free kick and just when Colemanstown thought they had done enough to hold out Cathal Fahy pounced on a Stephen Rabbitt headed clearance to sweep the equaliser past Joe Flan in goals with minutes remaining. It was a good tough match which got rid of the Christmas cobwebs while the hardest job was keeping the score but luckily Kenny Duane had an abacus stashed away handy on the day. What was more pleasing though was the whole team ethic which was shown by the entire panel and was typified greatly by the back four (this time without Stam): Niall Rohan, Stephen Rabbitt, Paddy McGinty & Padraig Quirke. This result leaves us sitting 2nd in the reserve league table with West Utd. in pole position. Squad: Joe Flannery, Niall Rohan, Stephen Rabbitt, Paddy McGinty, Padraig Quirke, Johnny Lally, Adrian Queeney, Ronnie Geraghty, Kevin Reilly, Shane Bailey, Ger Grady, Ray Moran, Sean Walsh, Ronan O’Neill, Conor O’Neill, Leo Morrissey.
Well done to Chris Sheridan who has secured 6 months placement with Galway United in his role as Assistant Strength & Conditioning coach.