Boys U12 (2014) Red - Prosperous United
The lads returned to action after a week off in what promised to be a tough challenge against Prosperous United.
Both sides started well with Naas seeing a lot of the ball. The midfield of Geo, Murilo, Leo and Eoin were in control winning lots of tackles and getting the ball into the final third trying to create something for Sean up top. At the back, Matthew, Sam & John were as consistent as ever in protecting Conall’s goal. Alfie joined the battle midway through to half and battled hard in his first outing with the team.
After a few near misses (at both ends admittedly), Naas’ perseverance paid off when Eoin found the bottom corner with a shot from inside the box. From the restart, Prosperous began to apply some pressure of their own and this ultimately resulted in them winning a penalty which was well converted to make it 1-1.
Naas were somewhat unfortunate to fall behind moments later when John got injured in a tackle and the Prosperous winger (who hadnt got an inch off John up to that point) was able to skip through unchallenged and make it 2-1.
The lads didnt let their heads drop and kept going for the rest of the half. Leo’s speed on the wing was causing difficulty for the Prosperous back line and forced a corner with seconds of the half remaining. Eoin whipped in the corner which was converted by the Hitman to restore parity at the break 2-2.
Naas started the second half well with John returning to the backline following his earlier injury. Again both sides traded blows for much of the half with the lads creating some chances for Alfie and later Geo who fired just over.
As the half wore on, Prosperous, buoyed by their bigger squad, began to take a foothold in the game and applied some serious pressure to the tiring Naas side. Conall, reliable as always, did all he could to keep the scores level but eventually Prosperous slipped in retook the lead with about 10 mins to go.
The last 10 mins was a damage limitation exercise in many regards with fatigue and sore limbs taking over. Despite this the lads kept going with Sam making an excellent goal line block and clearance close to keep the gap at 1 however Prosperous eventually struck their coup de grace with just a few mins to go. They added another right at the death to finish on a scoreline that was probably somewhat flattering albeit they were good value for their win on the day.
Credit to the lads for their effort on the day. 3rd league game in a row where we are up against much larger squads with limited ability to make changes ourselves. Special shout out to Leo and Alfie playing their first game for the team today - both did incredibly well and we look forward to seeing more from them.
This group train incredibly hard and have a great bunch of supporters on the line every week. They will dust themselves down and go again next week….on the road in Arlington!
