It is hard to imagine a game where the scoreline does not reflect the game more than this one. Ballyduff pressed hard early on and were rewarded with a goal within 10 minutes. Mooncoin responded almost immediately with an excellent goal from Emily Blackmore, following some resolute defending from Kayla O’Keeffe Bolger. The game was end to end with opportunities for both teams and Mooncoin felt very hard done by to go in at the break 2-1 down. This is particularly the case after an excellent shot from Emily seemed to cross the goal-line. Calls for VAR were ignored by the referee.

A number of Mooncoin players were carrying knocks or feeling unwell at half-time, which necessitated a few unexpected changes. This seemed to break our flow and Ballyduff pushed ahead into a 4-1 lead. A speculative effort by Emily caught their keeper unawares and we were back to 4-2 and pushing hard. Ballyduff gave as good as they got and it took some excellent saves from Mia Ponce de Leon to keep us in the game. However, the Ballyduff pressure eventually took its toll and they put the game beyond us.

Mooncoin brought on all of the subs and the team battled hard to the very end and were unfortunate not to close the gap. Ballyduff were physically a much bigger team than us but that did not stop many of our girls from competing for every ball. Indeed, the referee declared Luiseach Donohue the Player of the Match, and it’s hard to argue with him ,as she was a dynamo out there . Kayla Bolger also put in an equally impressive player of the game performance .

Premier league leaders Waterford Crystal were visitors for the Munster cup today .
Right from the kick off Crystal got into their rhythm by trying to use the width of the pitch to disrupt our defence but got little joy in the opening minutes.
However when one of our attacks was broken up the loose ball was moved quickly forward and when their winger got in behind he pulled the ball back for the inrushing striker to blast home from close range.
Credit to our lads they defended superbly for the remainder of the half and limited the visitors to long range efforts and corners.
Our midfield done Trojan work breaking up Crystal attacks and we looked threathening at times with oul Dan, Jack and Rudi linking up well in attack .
The lads grew in confidence from their first half display and started the second period on the front foot with plenty of positive play.
Too positive at times as we got caught trying to pass our way out of trouble in defence and a loose ball was pounced on by an attacker and the resulting tackle was deemed to have been a foul in the box. Although the penalty was well struck Darragh was equal to it and pushed it away to safety . We steadied the ship and had some joy in the middle of the pitch with some great passages of play but unfortunately we didn’t create too many clear chances.
As the legs and minds tired after the hour mark the opposition punished a lapse in concentration with a goal and the third followed within a few minutes to put the game beyond us. Although the game was gone at this stage it allowed us the oppourtunity to give more youngsters the chance to get a bit of experience to improve and the three chaps acquitted themselves very well.
Crystal added 2 more goals on the break before the 80th minute for a 5 nil victory.
In fairness to the young lads they plugged away in the final few minutes to try and salvage a goal.
A dissapointing scoreline given the fantastic effort from all involved but plenty of positives to take away from the game .
I’m certain the experience gained over last two matches against higher placed opposition will be invaluable to the lads throughout the rest of the season.

A great display from our lads away to league leaders piltown on a great morning for a game of ball. By far piltown are the strongest side in this division but our lads showed just how good they can be with a super all round display that only lacked a goal. Jack was a safe pair of hands in goal our back 3 of Ben Brennan, finbarr Purcell and Michael were solid all game limiting piltown to only half chances throughout anil and oision put in a great shift in the engine room while joshs skill and Darragh Conway passing, crossing and dead balls were a constant threat Emily up front almost put us ahead on several occasions but had no luck. Our subs of Luke, Darragh, Daniel, sean and Liam all played well when introduced we conceded 5 mins from time in the cruelest of manners with a deflected flick on. The most pleasing aspect of today was the football we played always looking to pass instead of punt hard to pick a motm in a great team effort but 2 players who really stood out were Ben Brennan for he’s defensive display and Darragh Conway who drove the team on at every occasion, a lot to come from this side if they put in the hard work on the training ground.

Mooncoin Celtic 8 Piltown 1

Rudi 4 Rizgar 2 Kieran 1 Lee 1

Our Under 12 Girls made the paper recently with their fantastic win over Villa. A great start to the season for this promising squad!

And remember to get out there a but your local newspaper for all the football results.

Shared points today in absolute awful conditions. Both teams were well matched and it was end to end stuff. We started off the strongest making a few chances that we should have taken. We were knocking on the door until an own goal by a St. Paul’s defender gave us the lead. Some really good performances on the day. Sam Hartwell as the lone striker didn’t get as much chances as he would like but gave it his all. Adam Conway is making the right wing his own. Stephen Foran started on the left hand side and almost broke though on two occasions. The midfield three of Alex Bailey, Lee Freyne and Diego Blanco Ibanez were constantly on the hunt for goals and were involved in everything. Ciara O’Keeffe was excellent at right back and Denis Kinsella had a really steady game at left back. Our central defence was on Top it it’s game with Tom Conway getting involved in everything. Conor Dermody’s first game at Centre back earned him Man of the Match today. He broke down two certain goals with his quick pace. Jonah O’Toole is really progressing in the goal. Mikey Cronin came on and added freshness to heavy legs. Second half we introduced Matthew Morahan who was unlucky not a get on to a loose ball. Dylan Conway came on in midfield and played well giving another option to there. A game we probably should have taken but we can’t argue with the point and sharing the spoils with a very good St. Paul’s team. Many thanks to the lads in St. Paul’s for great sport and the teams showing great respect to each other. Well done everyone.

Our first home game of the season welcomed Sttadbally. Conditions were terrible for a game .We started slow but got on top midway through the first half. We conceeded on stroke of half time against the run of play. We started the second half brightly and were level after a rasping Jamie Croke shot was only pushed into partied into the path of Anil Ramaswamey who slotted home. We went behind again after confusion in our defence . The lads rallied and a fantastic 20 yard effort from Canice Kinsella found the net. We pushed hard for the winner but as we tired we conceded 3 late goals . This was a dramatic improvement on our first outing and our first win shouldnt be too far away. Up next is a visit to Waterford Crystal on Sat 19th
Mom Jamie Croke

We couldn’t have asked for a better start as the game was only a few minutes old when Aidan Carroll (wearing runners) contested and won a header that seen Jason Ryan bring the ball into the box before slotting past the Crystal keeper. Not long later Stephen Brennan extended the score and made it 2-0. Jason Ryan swung a dangerous corner in from the left side which the Crystal defence couldn’t deal with and put it in their own goal to make it 3-0. Jasons corners were proven to be an issue for Crystal and he was unlucky not to get his second goal of the day as the ball rattled the crossbar direct from the corner. Crystal pulled one back before the break to make it 3-1. The second half seen Crystal put us under a lot of threat but the defence of Sherwan, Patrick, Liam and Mike held strong before a re-shuffle at the back as Liam had to leave the field after picking up an injury. Crystal got a second but this Mooncoin team held strong until the final whistle to take all 3 points. Need to mention our new goalkeeper Joe Delahunty who had another excellent game in his first season on the bigger goals, calm and collected from this young man in the goal.

Player of the Match goes to Jason Ryan with 1 goal and an assist.

Starting Team: Joe; Sherwan; Patrick; Liam; Mike O’K, Daniel; Ciara (Captain); Eoin Mc; Stephen; Jason; Aidan.

Subs: Anthony; Matthew; Will; Jamie; Mikey Cronin.

A second win for Mooncoin girls in just over two days. A final score of 9-6 was not looking likely when we went 2 down inside the first 5 minutes but a goal by Mollie Murphy on 10 minutes started a revival which left us 5-2 ahead at the break. Villa started well after halftime and pulled it back to 5-4 but we managed to keep our noses in front throughout, finishing strongly with Molly Quinn scoring a second half hat trick. Ella Brennan, Saoirse Drennan and a first half hat trick from Saoirse Dunphy all got on the scoresheet. The Villa star players were well marshalled by our defense and both goalkeepers (Aoibhinn and Hannah) pulled off a string of saves. This was an excellent squad performance with all of the subs getting game time. It is our policy to ensure that everyone gets to play as this is the only way that they will improve. This may mean that some of the results won’t go our way but the only way for the girls to develop the skills is in the heat of battle on the pitch. We have a big squad and players who couldn’t play tonight will get to play on Sunday against Bohs.

Our U12 Girls team who kicked off their league tonight with a 9-6 win away to the Villa under the lights in the splendid Connors Park.