The under 16’s played their third game on Thursday night away to Swatragh. After a disappointing performance in their previous game the management were looking for big improvement. With Swatragh having played in grade 1 at under 14 and Paul Kidd still unavailable through injury a tough game was expected.
Final score: Swatragh 1-12 Desertmartin 2-7
A very big Swatragh team looked as though they were going to swamp our lads early on as they raced into an early 2-point lead. However after settling to the task desertmartin rocked Swatragh with Ferghal Higgins hitting both. The second goal was very well worked with 4 players involved in the move. Enda O’Hagan then fired over to increase the lead. Despite now starting to dominate the play Desertmartin struggled to add scores, this allowed Swatragh to keep themselves in the game. After weathering the Desertmartin blitz Swatragh began to get on top and added points to bring the scores level approaching half time. Paul McGovern then hit our second point only for Swatragh to reply with a point HT Score Swatragh 0-8 Desertmartin 2-2. It was no coincidence that Swatraghs best period of the game coincided with Cathal Brown’s injury. Unfortunately he had to retire at half time.
Swatragh got of to the perfect start hitting 1-1 in the opening few minutes. Once again they looked as if they were going to steamroll our lads, however the managers had asked the players before the game to play to their abilities and give everything they had and this they did. They never folded and but for some poor refereeing might well have captured the points. The second half saw Paul McGovern and Enda O’Hagan share the scoring with Paul Hitting 2 points and Enda hitting 3. After that initial 1-1 Swatragh were outscored 5 to 3 for the remainder of the half and the should have conceded a penalty when with Paul McGovern clear on goals he was hauled to the ground but referee chose to ignore it, he also chose to ignore an elbow to the face for Paul McFlynn.
Despite the 2-point defeat the lads can hold their heads up and if they had have put a few more scores on the board early on may well have taken the points.
Christopher had a sound game in goals and he tried to use his kick outs intelligently. The full back line of Barry, Paddy and Sean held their own and looked much better than the last game.
Gavin, Mark and Brendan all played well at halfback. Paul McFlynn once again put in a tremendous hours work in the middle despite take some rough abuse never lost his composure. Cathal until his injury was dictating the game, had he remained injury free Desertmartin would have won the game. The half forward line of Declan, Enda and Ferghal contributed well to the team performance after picking up an early knock Thomas struggled somewhat whilst Ciaran was unlucky not to get on the score board and worked hard through out. Martin and Declan both tried hard when coming on. Man of The Match however was Paul McGovern who after a disappointing performance last time out was back to his best on thursday night.
1. C Bradley
2. B O’Hagan
3. P O’Neill
4. S McStravock
5. G Walker
6. M Murchan
7. B Higgins
8. P McFlynn
9. C Brown
10. D Murray
11. E O’Hagan (0-4)
12. F Higgins (2-0)
13. T Toner
14. P McGovern(0-3)
15. C Burns
Subs
M McGugan for C Brown
D Connery for T Toner
Man Of The match: Paul McGovern