U12’s Group E Round 6

Clonard 0-9 St. Colmcilles 0-10

On a warm and beautiful June bank holiday Saturday afternoon Clonard under 12’s made the long trip to Meath’s seaside location of Laytown to take on local side St. Colmcilles.

Despite the traditional holiday weekend, the majority of Clonard’s squad were available for this one and were joined by the usual large travelling support of parents, brothers, sisters, and other family members. It was an idyllic location for a GAA match as the jovial Clonard group parked their cars and walked together over the 200 metre footbridge across the River Nanny to the beachside football pitch. The heat of the warm sunshine certainly added to the smiles on everyone faces.

After a short delay due to other matches finishing on the pitch the ball was thrown in at 4pm. St. Colmcille’s made the brighter start and raced to 0-3 to 0-0 lead after just five minutes. The local side were playing with a strong breeze and were making it count, but Clonard battled away despite being under pressure from the older and bigger ‘Cilles’ side. They were rewarded with their first score after 10 minutes when a long ball from Niall McHugh, dropped short by the wind, was parried over the bar by Kian Campbell.

Clonard continued to be put under pressure in defence but Darragh Kirrane and Rourk Shaw were ‘tigerish’ in their efforts as they constantly denied space and potential scores to their opposing markers. In midfield, Dylan Duignan was demonstrating leadership as one of the more ‘senior’ players in the side and his excellent fielding and tackling was keeping Clonard in the game. Dylan’s young cousin, goalkeeper Alan Hannon, played his part in the rear-guard actions with a wonderful full stretch save to deny a certain score. His kickouts against the wind were also relieving pressure for his defenders.

The opposition did manage a further brace of points to stretch their lead out to four but it didn’t dampen the valiant efforts of the Clonard players as the half finished with both sides swapping scores on two occasions to leave it 0-7 to 0-3 in favour of St. Colmcilles at the break.

Clonard were playing with the breeze in the second half and it seemed to add a confidence to their play. Within three minutes of the restart they had reduced the deficit to a single point with wonderful team scores from Kayden Plunkett (2) and Kian Campbell (1). On two occasions the ball being worked the length of the pitch to result in a fine score.

St. Colmcilles did stop the rot with a well worked score as their lively full forward fisted over from close range but it didn’t quench the Clonard spirit as once again they responded with a score. Niall McHugh was moved out to midfield and Aaron Scott in to defence and it seemed to result in even more possession for the team. Both boys showing great determination under pressure and inspiring their team mates to move forward.

Clonard found the equaliser for the second time to make it nine points a-piece, unsurprisingly it came from the boot of Kayden Plunkett as both himself and Kian Campbell were causing all sorts of difficulty for the Colmcilles defence. It’s worth mentioning that the young boys are two of three players, along with goalkeeper Alan Hannon, from Clonard’s current under 10 team who joined to bring the squad panel up to 15 players. Their futures look very bright on today’s showing.

However, Clonard’s huge amount of possession wasn’t showing on the scoreboard as a combination of wayward shooting and bad luck meant one final score by the home side in a rare attack was enough to claim the win, as the referee blew his final whistle as the end of a thrilling match, final score Clonard 0-9 St. Colmcilles 0-10.

From a Clonard perspective the final result may not have matched the idyllic weather and surroundings but there was definite recognition of the spirit, talent and improvement of this team under the mentorship of Paddy McHugh and David Hannon. It was still a beautiful day.

TEAM: Alan Hannon, Rourk Shaw, Darragh Kirrane, Niall McHugh, Dylan Duignan, Kayden Plunkett (0-4), Kian Campbell (0-5 0-1f), Kacper Godz, Aaron Scott, Noah Victory, Krystian Snarzas, Braiden Shaw, Jim Kelly, Liam Gregan, Hugh Jamieson.