Na Fianna’s goals proved decisive in the U-16 Final

Na Fianna 4-11 Oldcastle 1-13 

The old saying “Goals win games” was never as true as in Dunganny on Tuesday evening, 08th August, when Oldcastle missed out on silverware in the U-16 Summer Football League Final against Na Fianna.

After a tense opening couple of minutes it was Na Fianna that opened the scoring. Oran Mulvanny was doing well for Oldcastle and was winning a lot of ball around the middle of the park and James McCluskey’s direct running was causing havoc for the Na Fianna defence. This set up Oldcastle to take a grip on the game and score 4 unanswered points from Colin Hawdon (45”), James McCluskey (2) and Oran Mulvany. Oldcastle also hit what would turn out to be a number of costly wides and also seen a number of goal chances go a begging. The sides swapped scores before Na Fianna grabbed the first goal of the game. Oldcastle replied with another 45” from Colin Hawdon but Na Fianna hit a purple patch as the half came to a close and hit the net twice to leave the half time score Oldcastle 0-9 Na Fianna 3-5.

Oldcastle knew they had work to do and that everyone was going to have to up the work rate to get back into the game. Colin Halpin was doing very well in defence cutting out a number of Na Fianna attacks. Oran Mulvanny converted the first score of the half for Oldcastle but Na Fianna finished to the net for the 4th time. Just as the game looked to be gone out of Oldcastle’s reach Colin Hawdon slotted home to give hope to the north Meath men.

As the time ticked away Oldcastle pushed hard for an all important goal, however it was not to come and Na Fianna took the honours in what was a very sporting and entertaining game on a score line of Oldcastle 1-13 Na Fianna 4-11

Oldcastle: Jack McDonnell Fox, Ciaran Healy, Louis Colleran, Colin Halpin, Conor Smith, Darren Connell, Joe Lynch, Conor Hetherton, James McCluskey (0-2) Charlie Lynch, Pearse Sheridan, Cillian Hanlon, Colin Hawdon (1-5), Cillian Connell (0-3), Oran Mulvany (0-3), Darragh Reilly, Dj Monaghan, Aaron Getty, Jack Murphy, Mark Coyle.

Ref:  Martin Dawson (St Michaels)