Friday evening kick off away to Ballinroad who are joint top of the table. The game kicked off at a frantic pace with both sides enjoying equal possession. A very close encounter throughout however we seemed to have the better of things on the break. Great to see Sam Hartwell back and he caused all sorts of problems for the defence who simply could not live with his pace. Liam Hogan was solid at the back beside Mikey Cronin who was as equally good. Ciara o’Keefe put in a player of the match performance and was excellent throughout. Conor Dermody also held the back line with great strength and pace. Conor was replaced by Denis Kinsella who was outstanding this evening. Alex Bailey played in a free role in the middle of the park tonight and he was involved in absolute everything from defending to attacking, he won every tackle and set the tone for the whole team going forward. Newcomer Sean Lennon again was a thorn in the side of Ballinroad with his blistering pace and created many chances. Tom Conway latched on to some nice balls and used his strength very well to move forward. Goal Machine Eoin O’Callaghan got the only goal from a well worked passing triangle with Sean Lennon and Lee Freyne who is playing out of his skin in the holding midfield role. Adam Conway was the spine of the team in goal again giving instructions and a safe pair of hands. Emily Blackmore and Daniel Roberts with Matthew Morahan being the substitutes. Great result in a league of tough opposition and especially against a team who have routed most of them! Well done everyone

A little player profile in this week’s News and Star that might interest a few locals.

Waterford U12 Girls Development Squad hosted Carlow in Carriganore for a series of games this evening and we had two girls making their debuts this evening with goalkeeper Mia Ponce de Leon and Ella Brennan.
There were 3 games for the Waterford U12s against Carlow this evening with the teams changed for each game. 1st match Waterford won 1-0. Second match Mia played in goal. The score was 0-1 to Carlow. In the third match Ella played and the score was 5-0 to Waterford. Ella played up front and was full of energy and got stuck in.
Both girls were excellent as were all the Waterford players, reports from Carriganore is the two girls really enjoyed the games and can’t wait for their next outing.
Well done girls.

Big well done to academy coach Mike Molloy who completed the PDP 1 course in Kilkenny yesterday in horrendous conditions.

With Chelsea drawing today, there was another 6 fallers. We now have 37 left standing going forward to week 4. Unlucky to those who fell over the weekend and best of luck to all left standing.

A blustery cold afternoon in Faithlegg where the golden oldies of the club were involved in a crucial league game for Park Rangers, win and they went top as DLS v Dunmore was postponed this afternoon. So our patched up team forgot to play along and as usual created plenty of chances without the end product. Neville Synnott hung up a wonderful free kick to really rattle Rangers to go 1-0 but a wind assisted effort crawled over the line to level things up. With time almost up and Park Rangers seeing their league title hopes gone up in smoke, a rather controversial penalty was awarded in the last minute and Park Rangers thought Christmas came early as they sit top of the pile this evening waiting for the rescheduling of DLS v Dunmore. Great effort from our boys throughout the year, a lot of injuries throughout the campaign hampered things but JJ can be proud of a decent campaign and still a cup to be played for. The flight to Lourdes for the 10 injured players will leave Knock Airport next weekend in the hope they’ll be fit for the cup.

A trip to the RSC grounds for the game today saw us come away with a hard earned victory against a decent Crystal side.
We started the game superbly and created a few opportunities from open play and corners.
The quality of delivery from these corners was of the highest order and enabled us to open the scoring after 20 mins .
A brilliantly flighted corner from Evan Cleary towards the back post was met by James Delahunty, who rose majestically above several defenders to bury his header past the Waterford Crystal keeper.
Although we were playing some terrific football for most of the half a long ball up field from the home team wasn’t dealt with and resulted in a free kick for Crystal. The delivery into the box caught out some of our lads asleep and the Crystal striker nodded the ball into the bottom corner.
The home side roared into the game and dominated the physical exchanges and were the better side for the remainder of the half.
Facing a gale of wind in the second half wasn’t going to be an easy task and serious questions were asked of this teams character and ability to dig out a result.
Although we struggled to get up the pitch with the conditions the back four and midfield trio showed great courage to limit the opposition to long range efforts.
A reshuffle on the hour mark saw a momentum swing in the game when the lads took the game by the scruff of the neck and drove the home team deep into their own half with some great passing and running off the ball. Such was the quality of our play we should’ve added a couple of more goals only for some tight offside decisions.
As the game entered the last quarter the lads showed their talent and character in abundance and when Evan won a super tackle in midfield Lee Tracey pounced on the loose ball to send Conor Stacey clear and as was about to shoot a defender upended him to concede a penalty.
Up stepped Dylan Harrington to keep up his 100% record from the spot. We saw out the last few minutes without conceding too many clear cut chances.
The confidence and work ethic that these lads showed today was a joy to witness from start to finish.
Great performance again by the whole squad today keeps us in the hunt for the title.

Credit must go to the management team of John Ryan, Patrick Dobbyn and Ethan Ryan as their hard work and preparing of this talented squad since last August has the boys still in the mix for league honours.

Due to overnight rain, pitch in Ashgrove is unplayable so girls u14 & u10 matches are cancelled today. Please Share.