Colemanstown U19 Girls 3 – 0 Craughwell. Colemanstown U19 Girls were at home to Craughwell on Sun morning. The recent weather and unplayable pitches took its toll but the match progressed and what a game it was. Colemanstown went to work straight away and set out their stall from the outset. There was lots of joined up play, 1×2 passes and lots of shots at goal. Craughwell also had their own spells of play and put the Colemanstown defence under some pressure from time to time but nothing Shauna Hynes, Keva Hynes, Lucy Roberts and Annalise Doran couldn’t deal with as well as Nina Bujak on top of her game in goals. The early pressure from Colemanstown paid off after 20 mins. Niamh Kennedy played a brilliant through ball into the run of Saoirse Moran and the defender had no choice but to drag Saoirse to the ground and give away a penalty.
Up stepped Libby Kennedy who tucked the ball into the bottom left corner away from the great diving attempt of the Craughwell keeper. 1-0 up with the game being played at a lightening fast pace. Colemanstown had the bit between their teeth and pushed for a second. It ultimately arrived not long before the break when a clearance from Keva Hynes found team captain Lucy Kenny and having run almost the full length of the pitch, she laid off to Leah Moran whose right footed effort found the bottom left corner for an amazing team goal which was well celebrated by the team.
As the 2nd half resumed, Craughwell started the brighter and created many chances but the Colemanstown defence held tight. The hosts broke through at one stage and with their striker 1 on 1 with the keeper, Shauna Hynes engineered a super blast of pace to get herself back on the goal line for a super clearance in an amazing piece of defending. This inspired the girls to dig in a bit more and Lucy Kenny delivered a great through ball to Sinead Rohan and she bust through the defence but the Craughwell player pulled her down and was shown a red card for her actions. Colemanstown capitalised on their numerical advantage and put some great passing moves together which lead to the 3rd goal that sealed the game. Lucy Roberts found Saoirse Moran who linked up nicely with her sister Leah and just the slightest toe poke put the ball past the oncoming keeper to make it 3-0 with 10 mins to go. The last 5mins saw a slightly refreshed Libby Kennedy up front, having a brief reprieve from a smack to the face. In those 5mins, Libby had 4 shots at goal forcing great saves from the Craughwell keeper as it was all Colemanstown in the final stages. There were great celebrations following the first win for these U19s and a well deserved win too it must be said, with some great soccer played. Roll on the next game away to Barna na Forbacha on Nov 26th when the girls hope to showcase the same. Match report by Philip Dee.
Squad: Nina Bujak, Annalise Doran, Keva Hynes, Lucy Roberts, Shauna Hynes, Lucy Kenny, Niamh Kennedy, Libby Kennedy, Saoirse Moran, Leah Moran, Eabha Neary, Sinead Rohan.