A day to forget for this squad. Credit to the 4th division lads who helped out and to Scoby for looking after them this morning.

We travelled to waterford crystal last Saturday in search of our first league points. We dominated the first half with Finbar Purcell putting us in front after some great link up play with Robbie Doherty on the left. Second half followed the same pattern and when Finbarr released Jamie Crokehe made no mistake to put us 2 up . Crystal came at us after that and 2 lucky goals turned 3 points into 1 very quickly. Regardless of points dropped,upward curve continuing for this bunch . Some great performances on the day, with Man of the match Finbarr Purcell.

A first half of missed chance after missed chance after missed chance, with Ian and Neville Synnott and Mick Dwyer all guilty of misses. Dunmore capitalised on this and they went down and scored with the only chance they had in first half.
Second half had only just started when Ian Synnott levelled with a header from a Shane Twomeys cross. A few fine saves from the returning Andrew Chucky Norris helped keep Mooncoin in the game and then Tommy Nolan put us 2-1 up with a good finish after good work from Ian Synnott. Dunmore then equalised after we were caught ball watching. We spurned another 3 chances when it was easier to score with Gerry Walsh, Ian Synnott and Shane Twomey all guilty. We’ll take a point from a tricky venue. Man of the match was Shane Twomey who bombed up and down the wing all morning.

A windy Alaska Park awaited our youths this afternoon and they were quick to adjust to the conditions playing some lovely football in the first half and opening up Kilmac time after time and goals from Evan Cleary and Rizgar had them 2 up at half time.
A slow start to the second half saw Kilmac come into the game more and they pulled a goal back before Evan Cleary slotted home a penalty after Ryan Carroll drew a penalty from a defender after a great run.
Changes were made and chances still kept coming but wasteful finishing would come back to haunt them with Kilmac grabbing two goals in the final five minutes to grab a point. An entertaining game with plenty of good football played. Stand out player today was Jay Langford, reliable as ever.

Our U11 Green squad travelled to De la Salle today and played out two high scoring games against top class opposition.

Our u11 Blue squad entertained Villa in Ashgrove this morning and again a glut of goals from both clubs with young Tommy O’Connor netting his first hat trick in one of the games.

Shared points today in a game we absolutely left behind us. We were at most points the stronger team. We started off slow albeit we made some early chances that wouldn’t go our way. Missing a few players today didn’t help and didn’t give us a chance to change things. We went 2-0 up with two goal direct from corners by Lee Freyne. Bohs got one back just before half time. 2-1 at the break. Bohs equalized almost straight away. A great finish by Adam Conway took us to 3-2 and another by Adam made it 4-2 with 5 mins to go. We were reduced to 10 men and bohs gained momentum. Bohs got two back to draw the game. Jonah O’Toole in goal. Alex Bailey and Conor Dermody at Centre back Denis Kinsella and Ciara O’Keeffe were busy and did well all game. Diego Ibanez, Lee and Mikey Cronin made up a three man midfield. Adam was impressive on the right. Sam Hartwell made some great runs upfront. Matthew Morahan came on late in the second half. Man of the match today for a brilliant performance was Sean Lennon. A learning curb for the players today but we will bounce back.

A topsy turvy game with plenty of goals to be seen in this one. A depleted side took to the field and try as they might they just couldn’t get that finishing touch in front of goal. 3-2 down at half time, they kept battling but posts,crossbars and the Ballyduff goalkeeper kept them out to send three points to Ballyduff. Credit to all the lads for turning out, a good number of them played yesterday at u16, another couple played Munster cup this morning and credit to the couple of boys for playing the minor hurling and playing the soccer afterwards.

Our u10 Pink girls travelled to play Villa this morning and a full hours entertainment was put on for the big crowd watching on. Goals were flying in at both ends and both clubs can be proud of the progress the young girls have made.

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.