On the 17th of January St. Ailbes U17 soccer team played a challenge match against St. Clements of Limerick city. They were prepared for a tough game.
St. Clements had an early penalty appeal but the referee decided he dived saying “You were doing a Chelsea kind of a thing.” The next big event in the game was an encounter between Darragh Cusse and St. Clements number 9, resulting in both players receiving yellow cards.
The next 20 minutes of play was all defending by us with Philip O’Sullivan making some fantastic saves. Robert Childs made a brilliant off the line save. Even though our defence was pretty solid the St. Clements attack was simply too good leaving the half time score at 5-0. At the break Darragh Cusse and Mr. Keating inspired the team with an uplifting talk.
We started the second half with a nothing to loose attitude. We got a free 10 minutes in, narrowly missed by Darragh Bourke. James Dee made a break into the penalty box, he was taken down and we got a penalty which Darragh Cusse took and scored. This raised the team’s spirits and we pressed high up the field. This lead to Christopher O’Brien running into the penalty box, putting the ball through the defenders legs and toe poking the ball past the goal keeper. It didn’t stop there, Dylan Quinn got onto the end of a low cross took a shot that was saved but James Dee was there to slot it home.
We would have been happy with the 6-3 result but in the last 5 minutes Robert Childs scored an unfortunate own goal leaving the score at 7-3. Mr. Keating said “I was disappointed with the first half performance but was delighted with the spirit shown in the second half.”
