U16’s: easy victory to advance in connaught shield

Colemanstown maintained their Connaught Shield challenge at the expense of a luckless Castlebar Town in poor underfoot conditions in Castlebar. A depleted Colemanstown broke the deadlock on 20mins when Keith Murphy threaded a perfect ball to his right for Kieran Dowd to latch on and slot home the opener. Brian Sweeney & Kieran Dowd had enterprising efforts earlier in the game while our re-arranged defense line; Lee Murphy, Gerard Warde, Alan Cannon & Ronan Carr impressed well & showed stubborn defending. Brian Sweeney, Aidan Monaghan & Keith Murphy all had chances to increase the lead before the break but Castlebar’s keeper was simply magnificent in goal. Colemanstown picked up where they left off after the restart and were 2-nil up early in the half when Brian Sweeney grabbed their decisive 2nd goal following great work from Keith Murphy in the centre of the park. ‘Stand-in’ keeper Ronan O’Neill was having a quiet game but this changed in the 2nd half as Castlebar Town began to assert themselves but Ronan made some excellent saves to keep us well on top. Daniel Masterson & Paul Lally were like two heavyweights on the flanks slugging it out in the mud, swinging in crosses from the right and left on a wet & heavy pitch. Colemanstown got their 3rd goal when Paul Lally, just returned from injury, was perfectly positioned on the back post to slot home a well taken Daniel Masterson corner. Our midfielders, Aidan Monaghan & Keith murphy had excellent displays throughout the game totally controlling the play in the middle third. Castlebar got a goal back just before full time to finish a well deserved 3-1 win to Colemanstown who now advance to the last 16 in the Connaught Shield.