U9's and U10's Go Games

Action from week ending 13 October

U9's Go Games - 13th October 2012

Report Dermot Crowley

KCH2 under 9s had a good day out in St Anne's Park versus Naomh Barrog. At the request of Naomh Barrog, the three teams were streamed.

The first team won easily in the end after a competitive first half. Their ability to score points helped them hugely and we were very happy with their performance.

The second team likewise had a good win. Their tight defence kept Naomh Barrog at bay and again the ability to score points helped us build and maintain a strong lead.

The third team had the closest match before running out 4-0 to 1-0 winners. This team showed great guts in grinding out a very close win after a scoreless first half. We competed for every ball and got the rewards with four second half goals.

U10's -13th October 2012

Panel B team 1 V Castleknock 13th Oct 2012 managed by Conor

The Castleknock boys were well warmed up by the time Crokes arrived at Porterstown Park and it certainly showed as the home team dominated the early exchanges. Shane Ryall played a blinder in goals saving three or four certain goals in the first 10 minutes. Jack Tiernan and Cian O Cathasaigh were under alot of pressure at the back and put in a couple of great hooks and blocks. Leo Fearon gave a great lesson in the art of fielding where he plucked balls out of the sky for fun and drove them deep into opposition territory.

Slowly the Crokes lads began to find their feet as both Cian and Michael Donnelly brothers tagged on a couple of points to keep the away side in touch. Davey Crowe worked tirelessly in midfield and scored a great point to put Crokes in front by a point at half time.

Daire McNulty went in goals for the second half and delivered very accurate puck outs to midfield where Mark Murphy dominated with great physical presence. Shane Ryall came out of goals and into centre half forward where he won a huge amount of possesion against a much bigger opponent.

Castleknock continued to pressurise the Crokes goal for most of the second half where again Leo Fearon and Jack Tiernan were fearless in the tackle and never gave a yard to the opposition.

Overall this was a very good lesson for our boys as we'll always learn more from a defeat than a victory. In the end the home side had a deserved narrow victory by an overall score of 21-19. The Panel B team 2 also were defeated by a strong Castleknock team.

Panel B team 3 V Castleknock 13th Oct 2012 managed by Frank

Team 3 travelled to Posterstown Road to meet Castleknock in what was to be a tough encounter.

From the throw in Castleknock played at a furious pace taking some early scores over the bar. This continued which meant Crokes had to step up their play. Luke Gilleran lead by example with some impressive play in the mid field where he battled hard to get some great ball to the forward line.

Michael Cregg was there to take some great ball and drove an early ball into the back of the net. This lifted the team and not long after Owen O Flynn took a long ball from defence and fought off the Castleknock defence to put another goal by them.

This took us to half time with only too scores. Half time team talk focused on marking, getting to the ball quicker and most importantly not letting Castleknock get a run of play.

Taking Sam Horkan out of goals to the midfield proved successful as he cleanly caught some difficult ball and launched them into the Castleknock half. Gordan Lenihan bravely fought to get an early goal, proving we had the skill and determination to win. Ronan O Reilly partnered Sam in midfield and used his ground hurling skills to great effect.

Daniel Kearny took a brilliant side line straight into the Castleknock defence where Patrick O Suilleabhain met the ball and fought off the defence to put the ball away for another goal.

Castleknock only scored twice in the second half due to Luc O Gorman’s great goal keeping but it was enough for them to achieve a home victory.

Final whistle went just as Crokes were starting to up their game but as we all agreed at the end of match team talk its essential to start off strong and bring in the skills we have learnt at training, a lesson learned to bring to the next match