Round Towers 2-8
St Annes 1-7
The U16 footballers followed up their victory last week over Ballyboden with a four point win against St Annes in the U16 Cup. In spite of being short of a number of first team regulars, who were on hurling duty, the U16 footballers showed great character in overcoming a good St Annes team in the first round of the U16 Cup, in Moyle Park. Towers won the toss and decided to play in to the wind. They got off to the ideal start, when straight from the throw in Joey Murphy delivered a long ball to full forward Justin O’ Hanlon, who fed a neat hand pass to Cian Clarke who finished expertly with a well taken point with his (weaker) left foot. Towers came out of the traps far hungrier than their near neighbours and created a number of chances as time and again they opened up the visiting defence. In spite of their dominance Towers failed to convert the chances into scores. Towers were eventually rewarded for their efforts when Cian Clarke finished to the net after Joey Murphy had two shots expertly saved by the Annes keeper, to put Towers into a four point lead. It looked as though the home side were going to have it all their own way as the half forward line of Craig Carroll, Aaron Soady and Cian Clarke continued to have the upper hand, however Annes slowly started to claw their way back into the game with a number of frees. A goal from Annes just before the break meant that Towers went into the break trailing by four points.
Towers started the second half as they began the first as the midfield pairing of Joey Murphy and Sean McKeon won the early exchanges and provided a good supply of ball to the inside forward line. Craig Carroll worked tirelessly from wing forward picking up a lot of breaking ball and proved an effective link between the half back and the full forward line. Towers were unlucky not get an early goal when corner forward Chris Berry found space inside the Annes fullback line only to see his shot expertly saved by the Annes keeper. Towers slowly started to eat into the Annes lead and points from Joey Murphy, Sean McKeon and Cian Clarke brought Towers to within one point of the visitors. Towers didn’t have it all their own way , but the half back line of Dylan McCarthy, Fergus Callaly and Luke Redmond insured that St Annes had to work very hard to create any type of opportunity. The turning point in the second half came when Chris Berry found the back of the net, to finish off a move that started in the Towers full back line. Corner back Eoin Barrett started the move deep in his own half of the field when he bravely beat two Anne’s players to a breaking ball. Eoin found Aaron Soady with a long foot pass, Aaron played a one two with Justin O ‘Hanlon before finding Chris Berry on the edge of the Annes square. Chris rounded his man to finish to the roof of the Annes net. Further points from Aaron Soady , Chris Berry and Joey Murphy put Towers into a six point lead with eight minutes to go. Annes continued to battle to the end and Towers goalkeeper Garrett Looney was called upon to keep his side in the game with a number of great saves. Full backs Sean Flynn and Andrew Pollard kept a tight rein on their men to insure that the Annes inside line were limited to long range opportunities. St Annes did manage to tack on two points in the final minutes, but it wasn’t enough and towers ran out four point winners on a score line of 2-8 to 1-7.
Team: Garrett Looney, Sean Flynn, Andrew Pollard, Eoin Barrett, Luke Redmond, Fergus Callaly, Dylan McCarthy, Sean McKeon (0-1), Joey Murphy (0-3), Cian Clarke (1-1), Aaron Soady (0-1), Craig Carroll, Justin O’ Hanlon, Chris Berry (1-2)
