Boys U14 (2012) Major 2 - Castle Villa
Good performance, poor results.
Our M2 reds travelled up the road to Kerdiffstown to take on a Castle Villa side sitting one place above us in the table, the three previous meeting last season were tight affairs and this was to be no different. The game started lively enough but both teams seemed to be struggling to come to terms with playing on the astro pitch as balls were running away from players and passes over hit. Villa broke the deadlock in the 12th minute when a good delivery from a wide free kick found the head of the centre half who headed past Noah in goal. Naas responded really well and seemed to settle more once behind. Some good work down the left between Frank and Fionn fashioned a half chance for Harry at the far post but the Kepper smothered him quickly. On 20 mins Frank was brought down 25 yards from goal, Luke took the free kick but the wind held it up allowing the keeper to make a save. The back four then got a chance to shine as first Lorcan topped a dangerous ran into our box and then player of the match Thady made 2 challenges in quick succession to block goal bound efforts. On 30 mins Scott collected a ball half way inside our half and set off on a run that saw him beat 4 players before passing inside to Charlie, Charlie beat his man and slotted the ball through to Luke but his shot skimmed passed the post. 35 mins in and it was Scott’s turn to have an attempt on goal after the tireless Luke’s had chased down 2 defenders cause it them to rush a clearence to Scott 30 yards out but again the keeper made a good save.
At half time Andy, Bobby and Jayden were introduced and the players were encouraged to just keep doing what they were doing and the goal would come, little did we think it would come straight from the kick off, Scott’s ball out wide found Jayden who crossed the ball into the middle, Luke was first to the ball and he found Frank inside the area, Franks touch took the ball out in front of him and as he was about to shoot he was taken out from behind. The penalty was awarded and Frank stepped up making no mistake sending the keeper the wrong way. 5 mins later and we found ourselves behind once again as a quick ball over the top caught us off guard, for once the wind died down and the ball went further than expected and the Villa forward made no mistake slotting beyond Noah. The next attack for Villa was stopped when Noah rushed off his line to prevent a shot getting away. The last 15 mins turned into a basketball match as we threw everything at Villa, leaving ourselves short at the back, Bobby was breaking up the opposition attacks and Charlie was setting the tone in midfield, Lavr was reintroduced and his running helped keep the pressure on but sadly the equaliser just didn’t come. We thought we had managed it with the last kick of the game but Frank’s effort took a slight deflection and drifted agonisingly of the outside of the post. Hopefully we can keep playing with this level of commitment and the results will come.
