In a well dominated first half from Colemanstown’s reserves, a wasteful display at times prevented them from acquiring all 3 points against a Carraroe side MacDara who made the long Saturday trip to Colemanstown by bus. That said, with 3 matches played they’re perched 2nd from top with Maree/Oranmore, the table toppers. Indeed, Colemanstown didn’t have all that many chances but dominated possession in the first half. Our first chance of the day came on 20mins when Daniel Masterson, back from his long sojourn from soccer, linked up well with Conor O’Neill but the keeper was quick off his line to drown out the effort. Niall Rohan made a massive telling impact on 35mins when he stretched full body and length, a stretch that surely got rid of the cobwebs, to connect to Gerry Grady’s right wing cross into the danger area & Rohan’s diving header for a remarkable stand out goal put us 1 up before the break and 1-0 it remained until half time. Early in the 2nd half, Joe Flannery was called into action as the visitors were put through twice on goal but Flannery made two smart saves. There was little more telling action as both teams played out a lack lustre second half even though a much fitter MacDara dominated most of the 2nd half possession. With 10mins to go MacDara were awarded a free kick which rebounded off the post but their opportunistic striker was on hand to tap home the rebound to restore parity. Ronan O’Neill had a late effort as his first attempt at goal was saved by MacDara’s custodian but as he followed up the play and fired in another effort from almost the end line, the ball hit the post and out over the end line. Colemanstown had a late penalty claim for a blatant hand ball but the plea fell on deaf ears. Both teams offered little attacking purpose in a tight 90 minutes of action as a share of the spoils was probably the fairest result on the day. Panel: Joe Flannery, Eoghan Barrett, Paddy McGinty, Jayo Finn, Niall Rohan, Garry O’Grady, Ronan O’Neill, Niall Cunningham, Conor O’Neill, Gerry Grady & Daniel Masterson while player/manager Kenny Duane had to fill the boots of Eoghan Barrett at half time who made the trip to the Sportsground to witness Connachts massive performance against Toulouse.
Our A team were rocked by injuries, unavailability of players, suspensions and a plethora of other reasons for their league encounter against 2nd from top Mervue played away on Saturday. They fielded an almost completely reshuffled side from that which beat Mervue in the Michael Byrne Cup at the start of the season. Colemanstown were neither as sleek, co-ordinated or as quick as their opponents and this told with a finish scoreline of 4-1 to Mervue. Matt Moran scored the sole Colemanstown goal and his first of the season. Unfortunately there was limited information available for our A team’s match report this week. Next weekend sees a huge range of games as Colemanstown B play St. Bernards in Abbeyknockmoy at 2pm; Colemanstown reserves play Renmore away at 2pm also on Saturday; Colemanstown U15’s play Salthill Devon at home on Saturday at 2pm; U13’s also play St. Bernards in Abbeyknockmoy at 10.30am on Saturday morning.