Our Under 16 footballers will play their cup final this Saturday, October 29th at 3pm in the Community Centre. Towers beat St Annes in the Community Centre last Saturday to claim the final spot and folowing a draw, we now have home advantage against Cu Chulainn. The semi-final match report is provided below, thanks to mentor Barry Gavin, and best of luck to all involved in Saturday’s final. All support is encouraged and welcome.

 

Round Towers 4-12

St Anne’s 1-12

 

A good crowd turned out to see the U16 footballers progress to the Final of the U16 Cup with a nine point win over St Annes in the Community Centre last Saturday. This was a good weekend for the club as the U16 hurlers also progressed to theU16 shield final.  St Annes won the toss and decided to play into the wind. However it was Towers who were out of the blocks quickest with an early score from midfielder Michael Cleary. This was followed by two points from Aaron Whelan and Fergus Callaly, to put Towers in to an early three point lead. The game was very finely balanced with both teams competing well in every sector of the field. St Annes managed to break through the Towers defence for a well worked point which was followed shortly after by a close in free. Just as Annes seemed to be getting a foothold, Towers got one of the scores of the match when a move started by Michael Cleary in his own half back line, involving three other players, was finished to the net by corner forward Aaron Whelan. This put Towers back into a four point lead. Cian Clarke added a point (free) and Fergus Callaly scored a great individual point; winning the opposition kick out and finishing a strong run through the opposition offence with a well executed point.   St Annes never backed off and continued to put pressure on the Towers defence. The full back line led by Eoin Barrett were not found wanting and time again Eoin and Sean Flynn repelled the Annes attack with a series of well timed tackles. St Annes did manage to tack on a couple of points before they got a somewhat fortuitous goal. Goalkeeper Justin O’Hanlon made a fine save and seemed to be impeded as he attempted to clear the ball. The referee waved play on, and St Annes grabbed the opportunity to close the gap to one point. Garrett Looney showed a clean pair of heels to the Annes defence to score a fine point and the teams exchanged scores and went into the break level on a score line of 1-7 apiece. St Annes would have been the happier of the two sides at half time, having played against the wind.

The question on everyone’s mind at the interval was how Towers would cope playing into the wind in the second half. St Annes got the perfect start to the half with an early point. Joey Murphy got the Towers back on level terms with a well taken long range point. The game was played in a great spirit with no quarter being given or asked. The Towers boys showed great discipline and were rewarded for their hard work when Aaron Whelan got his second goal after a nice move involving Craig Carroll, Garrett Looney and Cian Clarke. Even though Aaron is a member of the U15 team he showed no nerves, playing at the higher level, as he cooled finished to the Annes net. It was not all one way traffic and St Annes continued to pile on the pressure, but the Towers half back line led by captain Fergus Callaly stood firm, winning a lot of “dirty ball”. Chris Berry worked tirelessly, picking up a lot of breaking ball in the middle sector of the field and was well supported by Daniel Jesse and Aaron Soady. St Annes added two points to bring the Towers lead back to two points, however this seemed to spur home team on to even greater effort. Joey Murphy was working tirelessly on the right wing, making some fine high catches and linking well with his inside line. It was one of these moves that led to Cian Clarke finishing to the Annes net and putting Towers into a five point lead. Cian added another two points from frees and for the first time it looked like Towers had the game in their control. Towers played some very intelligent football in the final ten minutes and they put the game beyond doubt when Joey Murphy finished to the net having been put through by a fine pass from Craig Carroll. The teams exchanged one more point and Towers ran out winners on a score line of 4-12 to 1-12. The result was a fitting reward for the tireless hard work put in by every member of the team and they now progress to meet Cu Chulainn in the Cup final.
Team: Justin O’Hanlon, Sean Flynn, Eoin Barrett, Daniel Jesse, Fergus Callaly (0-2)(C) , Aaron Soady, Michael Cleary(0-1), Chris Berry, Joseph Murphy (1-3), Garrett Looney (0-1), Cian Clarke (1-3), Aaron Whelan (2-2), Craig Carroll & Padraig Fitzpatrick.
By mcglynnmichael Wed 19th Oct