ALL-IRELAND SCHOOLS’ SENIOR 'B' SOCCER FINAL
St Cillian’s, Clonskeagh 5 St Joseph’s, Charlestown 0
IN the space of just one week, the brave young All-Ireland pretenders of St. Joseph’s, Charlestown, have experienced the exhilarating thrills and low, lonesome spills of sport.
Riding the crest of a wave after their epic semi-final shoot-out success in Sligo just eight days previous, the East Mayo students rode into Mullingar with soaring confidence, chests out and heads held high and they came in their hundreds; parents, teachers and classmates with flags, banners et al, to cheer on the boys in blue, an expectant historic national title just 90 minutes away.
Alas the fantasy failed to reach fruition, instead the dream transcending into a first half nightmare as their metropolitan, multi-cultural opposition, exploded into action with a symphony of classical passing football that left Charlestown mesmerised and stunned, their defence breached on four occasions inside 25 minutes.
Despite this heartbreaking setback, however, it must be stressed that Philip O’Gorman and his courageous side lost absolutely nothing in defeat. Spirits, obviously bruised at halftime, were far from broken, and with a gallant second half effort full of honesty, endeavour and audacity the Charlestown side deserve eternal credit for the brave battling qualities displayed even in the face of such an uphill struggle.
In analysing the contest, it is far to say that Charlestown played second fiddle for the most part, particularly during the first 45 minutes and under severe defensive strain from kick-off, the concession of an early goal proved a fatal blow - one from which the bewildered students failed to recover.
Just five minutes had passed when the gaping holes in Charlestown’s rearguard were exposed for the first time. A long ball from Eoin O’Sullivan from the midway arc, dissected the porous and unsettled defence, creating a clear path to goal for speedy front man Chris Ormieres.
About to pull the trigger, the French teenager, was tackled by Shane Finn, and though the centre-half certainly made contact with the ball, it was deemed an illegal tackle from behind nonetheless. St. Cillian’s Irish international captain, Michael Leahy, strode forward confidently to slot home the penalty, the ball nestling in the corner despite Cathal Marren getting a hand to the leather.
Within a minute the Dublin schoolboys almost doubled the lead as Charlestown struggled to contain the fluid passing midfield movement. This time Marren was alert to a speculative effort from the left edge of the penalty area, quickly dancing across his line to tip the effort away to safety.
The second goal did materialise ten minutes later however. Again Eoin O’Sullivan was the creative force, angling a dangerous cross beyond the back four for Karl Rogers to run onto.
Stealing in at the back post, Rogers run the race to the ball, his outstretched right boot, diverting the leather past the on-rushing Marren.
With little opportunity to get their own passing game going, despite positive attempts by sweeper, Patrick Walsh and front man Thomas Meehan, Charlestown continued to feel the wrath of an incessant St Cillian’s, the ball returning towards fertile territory around the St Joseph’s area time and time again, and the third goal arrived on 23 minutes. Good work by Karl Rogers in the top right corner took him past two defenders and his cleverly chipped cross located the unmarked Ben Barkhoff at the back post. He had the simple task of heading into an unexposed net.
It went from bad to worse for St Joseph’s when they conceded a fourth two minutes later - Barkhoff ’s corner allowed to travel uninterrupted across the goal-mouth where Eoin O’Sullivan was on hand to bundle the ball to the net.
Credit Charlestown they never relinquished the fight but were restricted to sporadic forays into the St Cillian’s half with James Moran, Thomas Meehan and John Marren firing long range attempts off the target, although they did have a penalty claim turned down in the 35th minute when it appeared that Jason Murphy controlled the ball with his hand.
In true Charlestown spirit, St Joseph’s made a very positive start to the second half and could have pulled one back after 10 minutes when Shane Finn, Daniel Doherty and Thomas Meehan combined to place Damien Ward through on the goal.
Unfortunately the flame-haired attacker dragged his shot half a yard to the right of the post.
Shane Finn then went close in the 25th minute, an instinctive effort from the half way line clearing the crossbar by inches and James Horan flashed a 25 yard effort wide of the post in the 35th
minute. Then having defended expertly for the majority of the half, Charlestown conceded an unfortunate fifth.
Eoin O’Sullivan was the scorer, a screaming shot from the edge of the area arrowing into the top corner to bring the rout to an end and Charlestown’s All-Ireland dream to an abrupt halt.
ST. CILLAN’S: Zak Dutton-Hanny; Jason Murphy, Mark McCann, Oisin Jacob, Michael Leahy; Cian Donoghue, Ben Barkhoff, Eoin O’Sullivan, Chris Ormieres; Phelim O’Connor, Karl Rogers Subs: Marco Nicossia for McCann (55), Adam Collins for Barkhoff (63), Eoin Fagan for O’Sullivan (84)
ST. JOSEPH’S: Cathal Marren; James Moran, Brian Gavaghan, Enda McLoughlin, Shane Finn; Daniel Doherty, James Horan, Patrick Walsh, Damien Ward; John Marren, Thomas Meehan Subs: Patrick Curry for Moran (62), Sean Mulvaney for John Marren (75).
