A share of the spoils on the opening days of the season for both side’s, on what turned out to be a game of two halves. Within a minute Southend were one up.

A ball threaded through the Mooncoin defense found Kelly wrong footed. The ball was slotted home casually into the bottom corner of the Mooncoin net.

The away side held good possession for most of the first half with Mooncoin trying to come to terms with the fast moving formation of Southend. The battle was finally won back by Mooncoin in final 10 minutes of the half but chances for both sides remained few and far between. A different approach was taken at half time and Mooncoin shaped up an altogether different proposition. Pressing high up the field, tackles arriving in numbers and each getting stronger than the last.

The spirit of old was begining to show and Mooncoin relentlessly pushed forward and attacked at will. Southend were retreating and struggled to hold onto any possession of the ball. The away side were bombarded with an onslaught of balls fired into their penalty area, but to their credit, dealt admirably to the task. The clock was running out and with 5 minutes remaining Eoghan Walsh attacked the the left hand flank for the home side, pulled it back to Kelly who crossed it into the head of Kavanagh and he unfortunately from 6 yards out, put it straight into the keepers hands. On 90 minutes a ball was whipped into the box to Ian Synnott who was pushed hard from behind, penalty surely? But the referee didn’t oblige. Deep into added time Mooncoin threw one last roll of the dice. A ball crossed in from the right found the head of Kavanagh deep in the box, his header down found Sauvage who got in behind the full back and from the byline crossed a ball over the head of the last remaining Southend centre half, Kelly, with his knee, slotted the ball into the net from 4 yards and Mooncoin went into jubilation.

The game finished up one a piece and was a fair result for both sides who will both of taken many positives from this performance. The spirit and tenacity of the Mooncoin squad was exceptional. Still much to work on and with some more key names to return we look forward to the season ahead. Next up for Mooncoin is a fixture away to Piltown in 7days time. Team: R.O’KEEFFE, J.SAUVAGE, C.O’HANLON, I.TOBIN, W.KELLY, D.SYNNOTT, K.DOWLEY, K. O’BRIEN, J.O’HANLON, I.SYNNOTT, J.KAVANAGH. Subs: D.TEBAY, R.WALSH, E.WALSH, B.KEATING, N.MCDONALD, K.KNOX