Tom was captain for this Cup quarter final between Mooncoin and Ballinroad who finished the league season in fifth and sixth place respectively. The home team won five early corners in the opening ten minutes. Indeed it looked as if Aaron scored direct with a fantastic whipped ball from a corner that Ballinroad couldn’t deal with. If it was a goal no one in Suir Crescent could say for sure as the ball somehow appeared on the outside of the net.

At the other end a free kick was awarded on the edge of the box to Ballinroad which was dealt with well by James.
Soon after Tom played Kevin in who hit just wide of the far post.

James made a fantastic block on the line at the other end again as the game went from end to end. Ballinroad pressed on down their right side and their man on the wing cut inside and played a square ball to the edged of the box for their forward to bury it into the top of the net.

Mooncoin restarted the match and won a throw in in the right which Tom played into Kevin. His volley was saved after he controlled the ball well on his chest.

Ballinroad finished the half the stronger team with James clearing the ball out of our box. They hit a volley wide almost straight after and Fionn was forced to tip the ball over the bar after good work down the left side from the away team. Padraig didn’t miss a challenge all game defending in the centre in Tadhg’s absence.
Second half started much the same with an early shot in goal from Ballinroad.

Aaron, Cian and Tom worked tirelessly in midfield and all showed good skill, awareness and passing ability to drive us forward.

Kevin won a free kick on the left which Tom played onto Sean’s head but it went just wide of the post.
A brilliant solo run past two players down the right saw Killian make his way into the box before cracking a dipping shot off the crossbar. It rebounded to Sean on the edge of the box who shot over the bar under pressure from the defenders.

Cian crossed in from the right to Kevin who shot just wide. Viktor had his shot saved after another through ball from Tom. A volley was saved from Kevin a minute later as Mooncoin attacked in wave after wave.
Another whipped, dipping free from Tom was parried away by their goalie before being cleared. The ball was played up the pitch for Ballinroad to catch us on the break but the versatile Eoin mopped up having moved to right back from right midfield

A save from Fionn was required to keep us in the game late on as Ballinroad hit on the break again with all of the Mooncoin lads throwing everything forward. It wasn’t to be though and the tears from our lads showed what it meant to them at the end after giving it their all. A disappointing result but they can be proud of their performance. Many thanks to the boys for their commitment throughout the season.

Results haven’t always gone their way but they’ve grown resilient and developed a camaraderie as the year went on. Thanks also to Tadhg for turning up to support his teammates while missing the game through injury. Looking forward to next season already under floodlights and with VAR perhaps!

Thanks once again to our jersey sponsors at Dragonz Den for their support.

The u17 Cup Semi Final took place in Mooncoin this Morning between ourselves and Tramore .

Mooncoin opened the scoring 10 minutes In when Sommer Grant made a cross to Emily Blackmore who finished to the net .

The same duo struck again to double our lead on the 20 minute mark . After we played a ball down the right wing from an Alanah Tobin Kick out , to Niamh Reddy , who played Sommer through enabling her to get a pass to Emily .

Tramore managed to get on top and clawed back two goals before the half time break .

We started the second half a little slower than the first , but found our groove again after Sarah Walsh found the net , breathing some new life into our game .

Tramore made some good runs on our goal , but Eimear Quinn , Ella Bailey , Ciara O Keeffe and Kate McGrath stood firm , with Alanah Tobin on full alert between the sticks if anything slipped past .

Emily And Sommer finished up our scoring for the day with a combined effort from an indirect free Kick .

Many Thanks to the Man in the Middle today , Noel Lavery , who guided both sets of girls today.

Our third away game in a row saw us visit Portlaw. We started against the hill and a strong breeze and it took us a while to find our rythm. From the 15 min mark we took control with Marti in particular causing their defence problems.

A wonder strike from Marti set us on our way. A good finish from Jamie put us 2 nill up at the break. The second half continued in the same pattern with our midfield of Canice ,Oisin and Liam providing a soild base for Anil, Marti,Jamie, Dani and Jimmy to run at Portlaw.

The defence of Alex,Jack, Finbar,Mattie, Conor and Luke combined with Cathal in between the posts gave their attack very little sight of goal. A left footed strike from Jamie put us in total control and another strike from Dani put gloss on the scoreline .

A great effort from a young but talented Portlaw team but we were just too strong on the night.

Kilmacow away in the cup 1/4 final awaits next Thursday.

Goals Jamie x 2, Marti & Dani

Mom. Finbar, with special mentions to both Jamie & Marti

Proudly sponsored by Mooncoin Pharmacy

Wednesday evening, at home in Suir Crescent. Mooncoin Celtic took to the Pitch against visitors Park Rangers . A must win game for both teams in order to stay in the running for this very competitive u16 League .

Both teams began attacking very from the start , and Mooncoin hit the woodwork inside a few minutes before Park Rangers took an early lead ….. But our Mooncoin girls sprung into action and equalised soon after . We had some great passages of play which saw us gain the upper hand and at the half time break the home side led 3-1 .
The second half saw Mooncoin play with a renewed belief , and from a Mooncoin point of view, we played some of the best football we have done to date .

The girls played together for each other .
Taking and punishing what chances came their way .

The end score line doesn’t reflect the massive Park Rangers effort this evening . Who along with ourselves gave it everything from first whistle till last .

Emily Blackmore ⚽️⚽️⚽️
Emily Cooney ⚽️⚽️
Ella Brennan ⚽️
Sommer Grant ⚽️

An away game to Bohs followed last weeks reversal at the hands of Kilmacow.

The first half was an even affair with us slightly edeging it but we missed a few clear cut chances, we went in nil nil at the break.

The second half was a different affair as we took control from the off. A strike from Jamie saw us take the lead followed by a brace from Marti .

We conceded a soft penalty to lead 3.1 going into the final 15 mins. Dani put the game to bed after an Anil pass. A fantastic team performance from the 11 that played.

The defence was well marshalled by Jack and Liam in the center and flanked by Conor and Luke.

Cathal stood tall in nets and controlled from the back. The midfield of Canice and Oisin never gave Bohs a chance to settle and fed Anil ,Marti, Jamie and Dani.

Goals : Marti x 2, Jamie & Dani.

Mom : Canice & Oisin ( impossible to seperate them)

Mentions for Jack & Marti

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.