Road trip was on the cards Yesterday as the u17 Girls made their way to Gorey Rangers for the FAI Cup .

We set off from Mooncoin , unsure of what the day would bring , but excited about the unknown all the same .

Gorey Rangers welcomed us with open arms, and there was talking and plenty of Banter . But when 4pm came …. both teams took to their sides of the pitch , it was down to business.

The game took off at a fast and furious pace . And both teams tried to settle quickly. Gorey Rangers drew first blood and went one up after a long range effort beat our Keeper to put them one up.

Mooncoin kicked into action straight away and had some very good passages of play ,,,,,, which was soon to pay off , a clearance of a ball by Casey Moore up the wing to lighting Fast Luiseach O Donohue put us on the Run , Luiseach took the ball all the way to the corner flag and when it seemed she had no where to go, rounded the Gorey defender and slipped a pass to Emily Blackmore , she brought the ball towards the goal and when the opportunity arose , struck home to level the game up.

Niamh Reddy gave possibly her best performance to date in a Mooncoin jersey, clearing ball and breaking down down the Gorey threat .

Ciara O Keeffe, Kate McGrath, and Cayla Dunphy stood firm in the defence . And Grace O’Toole was ever ready and waiting to spring into action.

Sophie Scahill settled into her midfield roll and helped to distribute plenty of ball .

Ella Brennan caused her usual havoc when we introduced some fresh legs midway through the half . Molly O’Doherty and Eibhlin Holden also freshened up the squad .

Gorey Rangers managed to go one up again from a free kick which is the way it stayed until the break.

We chatted at half time and the girls took to the pitch in the second half hoping to ding an equaliser. With disaster striking for us 5 minutes in when Gorey stuck home for the third time .

Instead of heads dropping …. the 40 remaining minutes were filled with end to end football by both teams, Mooncoin banded together, dug their heels in and went all out . Aoidhin Lonergan mixed things up in the middle when she made her way on to the field of play .

And it looked that the tide might be changing when we were awarded an indirect free kick , but some great defending by Gorey Rangers scuppered that chance .

Alanah Jordan gave us hope when she put a ball though for Emily , but the Gorey keeper was quick off her line .
Ciara Corcoran and Molly Long worked tirelessly to get as much ball forward as possible.
Final Result
Gorey 3-1 Mooncoin

Special mention has to be given to Ella Bailey, who stood between the sticks and wore the GoalKeeper jersey yesterday. Ella worked her socks off and put in an amazing shift for her club yesterday .

Today we welcomed title chasing Villa to Suir Crescent for an early kick off.

We wanted to get back to winning ways and we started brightly today and got the breakthrough early with a good passing move, that Josh McLoughlin calmly finished past the Keeper, how it was only 1-0 at halftime was baffling with the number of chances created.

Villa started strong at the start of the 2nd half, we introduced Sean O’Donoghue early in the 2nd half and he added a spark back to the team, taking on the Villa left back everytime he got the ball.

Credit to the Villa Keeper he kept them in it and it should have been a comfortable win with such a good performance but unfortunately a poor penalty decision in the dying minutes cost the lads 3 points.

Even after that we hit the crossbar with a thunderous shoot from Lucas Delahunty.

All the lads were devestated afterwards in the dressing room, but we told them to hold their heads up and on to the next one. Lots of good performances, but MoM in this one was U13 player Daniel Ponce de Leon who led with a super workrate all day.

A short trip to Kilmacow this morning for Mooncoin U12 boys.

A few chances for both sides before Robbie hit an unbelievable volley into the back of the net from 30 yards out that was unstoppable (shame we didn’t video it!).

Just over 5 minutes later Kilmacow got an equaliser into the corner of the net. A mistake on the half way line just before half time led to a breakaway and another goal for Kilmacow.

The boys came out at half time and deservedly got an equaliser. Ethan hit the ball over the keeper and it hit the post and in the scramble Kilmacow defenders knocked the ball over the line.

An exciting finish for the last twenty mins saw two evenly balanced teams trying to get the three points.

Match finished up 2-2.

Ballyduff were visitors to Suir Cresent last night. A game that flowed from end to end until a fantastic solo goal by the electric Jamie put us in front.

We started to dig in and when Robbie latched onto a long ball from Jack the net rattled and we were 2 up at the break.

The second half was an even affair with Canice having a titanic battle in the center of the park. A fantastic back post volley by the Oisin put us 3 up and in control .

A mistake at the back gifted Ballyduff a penalty which Jake couldn’t keep out.

All round a good gritty performance against a dogged Ballyduff.

Kilmacow await next week.

MoM. Canice with Jamie a very close second.

Goals
Jamie, Robbie & Oisin

Tom led the team out on a bright Easter Monday morning for our penultimate home game of the season.

Mooncoin started well in the first ten minutes however De la Salle grew into the game winning a number of aerial balls in midfield and passing the ball into the channels between our defence. 

The goals soon came and despite Fionn’s best efforts the home team were three down at the interval.
Second half started well with Mooncoin winning a corner down the left hand side after good work by Kevin.

Tom whipped the ball into the 6 yard box and Sean nodded into the far corner of the goal. This was to be the highlight for the lads as there were no further clear cut chances after that. De la Salle scored one from a corner and another on the break as Mooncoin pushed for another goal.

Many thanks once again to our sponsors Dragonz Den.

Congrats also to Aaron on the birth of his little sister during the week.

Top of the table clash saw the u16 boys claw their way back into this game to earn a draw.

We have a special video of the goal too.

Exciting match today for our u12s away to Bohs. Mooncoin missed a good few chances before Robbie found the back of the net after 20mins.

Bohs were clinical and in a blink of an eye they were 2-1 up. Just before half time Fintan latched on to a blocked shot from Ethan to level it up.

Bohs took the lead again early in the 2nd half and except for a point blank save from Will it could have been worse.

Then a crazy ten minute period saw Robbie getting a second goal and Ethan getting a brace, the 2nd one from a good pass from Jimmy which was ruled just on side.

Overall a nice win for the MCFC boys.