Brave display in loss to Simonstown in the U-16 Final

Simonstown Gaels 4-9 Oldcastle 3-10
Despite fighting until the very end Oldcastle could not breakdown the Simonstown team and missed out on silverware by 2 points in the U-16 League Div 5 Final played in Dunganny on Tuesday evening (22 May 2018).

The dressing before the match was more like a hospital ward with a number of players carrying injuries and 5 lads having played in a school blitz earlier in the day. Conor Boylan was worse for wear with an ankle injury and the hard decision was made not to start him. This was a huge blow as he was one of the leading players in the group stages.

Pearse Sheridan opened the scoring with a well taken score. Moments later Pearse played a long ball into the full forward line. The ball hopped and with the sun in their eyes everyone misjudged it at the ball went over the bar. Simonstown replied with 2 pointed frees and this was quickly followed by a goal. Little did we know that this would turn out to be that last time Oldcastle had the lead. One goal was hard to take, but Simonstown hit the net for a second time 2 minutes later. Ryan Kevin and James McCluskey added a point each before Pearse Sheridan found the back of the Simonstown net.
Jack Murphy was putting in a serious shift and a run from inside his own half opened up the Simonstown defence. Jack coolly converted to reduce the gap. Simonstown added another couple of scores before Darren Connell, who had covered every inch of the pitch converted for the final score of the first half to leave the score Oldcastle 1-7 Simonstown 2-5.

Simonstown had a dream start to the second half with a goal in the first couple of minutes. This was followed by a point before Pearse Sheridan grabbed a goal. Simonstown converted another chance before grabbing their 4th goal of the game. Dj Monaghan gathered the ball at the edge of the big square and fired it to the top corner of the net to reduce the gap. The game was now on with both sides pushing hard. The sides traded points with Jack Murphy, Pearse Sheridan and Darren Connell scoring for Oldcastle but it wasn’t to be and Simonstown held on on a score line of Oldcastle 3-10 Simonstown 4-9. This was a great team effort from all and the lads will bounce back for the next competition.

Oldcastle: Ross McCann, Lloyd Colleran, Colin Halpin, Brian Hetherton, Jack Murphy (0-2), Conor Smith, Dj Monaghan (1-0), Darren Connell (0-2), Mark Coyle, Ryan Kevin (0-1), Pearse Sheridan (2-4), Matthew Cahill, Darren Kavanagh, James McCluskey (0-1), James Tuite. Subs Conor Boylan, Sean Chatten, Jp Purcell