Saturday morning we travelled to Tramore and were lucky enough to get to play on the main pitch in glorious sunshine.

We started well going 1-0 up with Emily Blackmore finishing from a lovely ball over the top (Emily loves scoring out in Tramore).

The lead was short lived after a dubious penalty was given against us for hand ball. We got on top again after this setback to get in the lead when this time Anil got behind the defence and finished brilliantly to make it 2-1.

Bizarrely after two defensive mistakes at halftime it was 3-2 to Tramore. At half time we felt we could regroup and get a result, after lots of pressure we equalised from a brilliant long range free kick from Daniel Ponce de Leon.

We kept passing and creating chances with Conor Walsh hitting the post after a lovely through ball in to the box followed by Daniel hitting the bar from a header only to lose the game in the last five minutes to another hand ball penalty desision, a cruel way to finish the game after the team giving everything.

A lot to take from the performance, MoM in this one Anil Ramaswamy who started at left Midfield then right midfield and ended in right back, gave absolutely everything he had.

Our first Midweek Game brought us to the RSC last night for a sunny 6.45 Kick Off V Bohemians .

In the dressing Room before the game . We reminded the girls of the amount of hard work they had put in to date , and just exactly how far they had come . Previous years had seen us finish up a season having only had a single win throughout the league campaign. All we asked was that they do their best , believe in themselves and never give up . Something that we have said before we’ve taken to the field before all games this season .

The game started at a frantic pace with Bohs coming at us hard in a bid to get an early lead. This put us under pressure from the off . But the girls reacted well, as Bohemians didn’t capitalise on any of the attempts they made on our goal. Emily Blackmore stood guard of the Mooncoin net, stepping up for her club and team and away from her regular out field striker position .

Ella Bailey gave a solid performance as Mooncoin Captain for the night and along with Eimear Quinn , Niamh Reddy and Sophie Scahill dealt with the pressure of the opening exchanges of the game .

We took the lead just before the break , when Sophie Scahill got a pass to Sommer Grant after spotting her making a run from the middle of the pitch . Sommer slotted home and saw us head to the break a goal up .

The second half started at the same furious pace as the first , by this point we had settled a bit more into the game. We got the ball forward a lot more than the first half.
Bohs scored an equaliser ten minutes in , and this made for an exciting half hour of football taking us to the final whistle .

It was helter skelter for the remainder of the game , with both teams wanting to beat the other and take all three points . But the game finished with both teams taking a point each home .

The girls did exactly what we asked of them. They never gave up . And for 80 minutes they played for each other and for our club.

The final league game of the season was away to Villa who were beaten by a single goal by Charlie in the home match earlier in the season.

Ethan carried the armband with pride and led the forward line with Kevin from the kick off. Mooncoin showed attacking verve first off with good trickery from Kevin down the left side including a cheeky nutmeg.

Ten minutes in however Villa began to grow into the game breaking clear of the defence and pulling an effort wide of the post.

Two further chances in the minutes that followed saw Fionn forced to make two saves to his right.

Mooncoin countered and Aaron played a precision pass down the left channel into Kevin whose shot was heading into the top corner only to be tipped over by the keeper.

The resulting corner was cleared and Villa broke forward from midfield and a great ball to their forward was met with a fine finish which didn’t give Fionn a chance. One nil to Villa after 20 minutes. Killian came on up front and pressured the Villa defence in his usual style.

Mooncoin were unlucky not to equalise just after the kick off when Sean headed the ball wide from a corner. Indeed, the delivery from Cian and Ethan from corners was excellent throughout the half.

The second half began with an early free kick which Aaron hit just over the bar. Minutes later Aaron had a volley saved from Cian’s whipped free kick. After some clever movement Viktor hit a shot wide of the post after a long pass up the left side from Tadhg.

Tadhg defended with typical authority second half along with Padraig and Sean giving Fionn in goal very little to do. Mooncoin were in the ascendancy with another free from distance from Tom sailing just over the bar.

A shot from Charlie was saved shortly after following some neat footwork in the opposition area.

A long shot from Sean was dealt with comfortably late on. Eoin worked tirelessly on the right. With seconds left everyone including Fionn got forward from a corner. After it was cleared James single-handedly stopped a Villa break with almost all of our players forward. An intense match finished one nil.

This group of lads deserved at least an equaliser from this performance and no longer play with their heads down after they concede showing a resilience which has grown over the course of the year.

With Ballinroad losing to Bohs this evening it looks as though 5th place may belong to Mooncoin which is some turnaround for these boys after a tough start to the season. A cup quarter final awaits with plenty to play for yet.

Many thanks once  again to our jersey sponsors in Dragonz Den.

A bumper Bank Holiday Monday saw the u13b boys take a trip in to Poleberry to meet Bohs in the Cup quarter final.

This was a true cup tie from the first minute with Bohs having the upper hand in play in the 1st 10 minutes but then out came a bolt of a shot from Daniel outside the box and it was 1-0 to Mooncoin.

No more than a minute after tip off and some clever play by Conor, slide in Sean who out foxed the right back in the box and he slipped the ball past the keeper for 2-0.

But this was a battling Bohemians team who got straight back in to the match, with not one but two cracking shots from their No. 10. and within 5 mins it was 2-2.

The Mooncoin lads composed themselves and just before the break Sean was within the D outside the box and unleashed a mighty shot to make the score 3-2 at half time.

There was plenty of discussion at halftime and there was more control of the ball seen in the 2nd half and finer passing. The Mooncoin lads then executed a fine corner kick routine and Ethan got an awesome flick to make it 4-2.

It was no surprise that Bohs came storming back looking to get back in to the game, but the Mooncoin defense held firm with a couple of a great saves by Eoin and some excellent clearances and tackles by the back four.

The team moves on to a cup semifinal on May 12th, with Sean O’D holding the MoM award from this game with 2 goals and an assist.

A hard fought win today in the cup with the u11 boys really digging in to get the result.

We opened up the scoring in the first half when a beautiful taken corner by Ryan Sutton was met by Peter Mackey to open the scoring.

We had numerous other chances in the first half but the Southend keeper made some excellent saves.

We dominated the game again in the 2nd half and midway through it we made in 2-0.

This was a really well made goal with passing out of defence to find Jack Twomey.

Jack skipped down the wing and found Ryan Sutton with a great cross with Ryan cutting through to make it 2-0 and put the game to bed.

The most pleasing aspect or the game was all 14 boys played a big part in what was an excellent victory to put us into the semi-final.