Boys U14 (2012) Major 2 - Kildare Town

On a bitterly cold morning, it was good to get back to some football and blow off the cobwebs.

our first game of the new year saw us travel away to Kildare town and it was the visitors that started the liveliest. Inside the opening five minutes Naas forced two corners the second of which saw Andy find Scott inside the 18 yard box only for his shot to be saved onto the crossbar. Scott was relishing his new role as an attacking midfielder and after seven minutes, he dispossessed the Kildare centre half and put the ball past the advancing goalkeeper. Three minutes later, things got better for Scott as Fionn slipped him through to score his second of the game. An impressive opening 15 minutes saw Naas scored a third goal, Fionn’s cross beat the far post, but Luke shut down the fallback and crossed the ball back in for Frank to finish off. Straight from the kickoff, Kildare had their first attack of the game, but they were foiled by the outrushing Noah in goal who shut down the through ball. It was a warning sign of things to come and after 18 minutes we conceded after a scramble inside the 18 yard box. After this Naas reclaimed control of the game with Charlie, Bobby and James anchoring down the midfield and after 30 minutes, Fionn and Scott combined once again only for Scott’s shot to be saved again by the impressive Kildare keeper. As the half was coming to a close frank collected the ball inside the Kildare half and went on a run that took him past three players before rounding the goalkeeper to finish off. Four one at halftime and everything was looking good…

The second half started much like the first, two minutes in Luke got the ball on the edge of the 18 yard box and had a shot that the keeper saved, Charlie took the resulting corner when the ball fell to James on the edge of the box his shot was saved only for Luke to follow up and score. Then just when we thought everything was going great two minutes of madness first in the seventh minute of the half we conceded to a counter attack. After the restart Kildare got the ball out wide attacked down our flank, centred and scored, it was a shot in the arm the lads needed to remind them no games ever safe. In the 11th minute of the half, Frank ran onto a through balll before carrying it into the area and putting it beyond the goalkeeper to complete his hat-trick. It was once again time for our defence to perform and Thady, Dylan, Donnnacha and Lorcan found themselves stretched but able to keep the Kildare attack out. The final five minutes saw a flurry of activity with both James and Scott having shots saved, on 32 minutes Harry got the ball out wide beat two players and crossed for Charlie to have a shot which the keeper saved but Fionn was on hand to score from 2 inches out, he swears the ball was going wide… Kildare scored the last goal of the game as an attacker intercepted a goal kick to score from 25 yards out. Naas nearly rounded the game off with an eighth goal, but Lavr’s shot was stopped on the line and deflected back into the keepers arms. Overall, it’s a good display for the first game back.