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.

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.