17 July 2012
U15 County Development Squad Sat 14th
Laois v Antrim 3 x 30 mins
This was the only the second match for the 2012 squad that has seen quite a lot of new players added to the 2011 u14 squad, and the management team were quite keen to see we were in terms of both skill, sharpness and effort. Twenty eight players and the 4 coaches travelled on Sat and all were to play a vital part in the two point defeat on a score line of 3-20 – 2-21.
The boys began the first 30 mins in fine fashion taking a couple of great scores from James Mc Naughton against a strong breeze and for the first 15 mins held our own against a big powerful Laois team who have great hopes for this incoming season. But the final 15 mins were costly in which we shipped a couple of quick goals after mistakes by our defence and they tagged a number of long range scores with to much space to exploit, it certainly was a wake up for our lads and ht couldn’t come quick enough for the lads.
Manager Paul Mullan and his coaches made a number of pre planned changes as he reorganised his team and give some more of the panel a run out, playing with the aid of the breeze made a huge difference and James Mc Naughton and the powerful Dylan Mc Laughlin ruling the midfield area quickly eat into the large lead and a goal from Ryan Mc Kee along with two brilliant points before he has to retire with a back injury the game suddenly looked totally different. A goal from Seamus Mc Auley and a couple of scores from inspirational centre half Gerard Walsh saw our boys turn a nine point deficit into a three point lead over 30 mins.
This time our coaches job was slightly easier, as our tails were up with the realisation that the squads were evenly matched and we were as good as Laois. The last player to see action was goalkeeper Benny Conor as both Ryan Elliott and Patrick Abhram shared the previous minutes between them, Benny was to go on and make two point blank saves to keep us in the lead and with jack Brown in FB clearing his back line time after time there was hope we could hold onto our lead. Halfbacks Joe Maskey Fergus mc Cambridge and Cory Beggs handed out some serious hits and pushed our lads up the field time after time and, aided by Donal Careys long clearances the battle really began to hot up. Laois had one particular corner forward who was a class act but the lads stuck to the task. The third 30 minutes against the breeze was a good a contest that you will see all year and although we conceded a goal late on from a 21 yard free, the Laois keeper pulled of a instinctive save from a goal bound Seamus Mc Auley effort to guide his team home by two point.
a) The lads were all a credit to the County and the clubs who coached them, but while they all have a lot to work on it was a great start by the squad who along with the 14s and 16s play this week in the Leinster Blitz on Saturday.