U15s beat Ballinteer, 6 April 2008

Date of Match: Sunday 6th April 2008

Versus: Ballinteer St John's

Venue: Marlay Park

Competition: U15 Hurling Division 1 - League
Management Team:Donie Dowling, David Moran, Liam O'Carroll.

Scorers:
Crokes: Justin Cassidy (1-1 ), Alex Pilkington(0-3), Fionan Motherway (0-2), Kenneth Kelly (1-0), Shane Moran (1-0)


Match Report / Match Highlights:

We travelled to Marlay Park to play Ballinteer St John's for a match at 11.30 am; a bitterly cold morning,a stiff enough wind blowing accross the pitch but favouring one end.

A superb victory over Ballinteer St John's - they had beaten us in the first League match last season but we have prevailed on three occasions since then.

We were missing our 'rock' at centre-back, Emmet Doherty and Conal O'Neill was injured. Jack O'Brien made a return after a broken leg and the Under-14 squad kindly gave us Andrew Colclough to provide for 1 substitution.

We were slow out of the blocks, lost the toss and played into the wind in the first half. Ballinteer registered the first point. We plugged away and with difficult conditions, clean ball was not always available. A cross from Jamie Clinton led to a goalmouth scramble and as the ball came out, Shane Moran pulled well and drove to the back of the net. Ballinteer registered the next 3 points and we put 1 over before we got another goal throught the efforts of Kenneth Kelly.

We were lucky that the Ballinteer free-taking was poor as 2 or 3 misses from them kept us well in the game. That said, some of our defending was great, with effort and good blocking. Oisin O'Carroll did great work to contain Aodain Clabby, one of Ballinteer's stars, hassling and hooking to ensure he got no clean shots. Ballinteer used chances to go for some goals from frees and a sixty-five but some passionate defending and great goalkeeping from Paddy Tighe kept them out. We led 2-2 to 0-4 at the interval.

The 2nd half was fairly even but after Aodain Clabby got a goal for Ballinteer, they came at us with renewed vigour. We responded soon after with another goal and came close with 2 more from Kenneth Kelly and Keith Finn. Our defense held up well under pressure with enthusiasm and effort; Sean Boyd as usual ensured fearless defending. Chasing,blocking and harrying of the opposition was effective. A great sixty-five from Alex using the wind ensured we kept the gap to 3 points; a last point awarded to Ballinteer was most definitely wide but their umpire swayed the referee.

While there were the usual few fouls it was not a dirty game and a credit to both sets of players; a tough battle but effort and a desire to win saw us through to a very satisfying victory.
 
Kilmacud Crokes: Squad: P Tighe, S Boyd, O O'Carroll, J Huban, A Pilkington, F Motherway, J Cassidy, J Clinton, N Carr, S Moran, K Finn, N Hanley, J O'Brien, K Kelly, B O'Farrell, A Colclough.
Injured/Unavailable: E O'Doherty, C O'Neill.