Our U8 footballers travelled up to Andersonstown Leisure Centre this morning for the latest round of Go Games.
We were entered in to group one along with Carryduff, St Paul’s and Sarsfields. The first game saw us up against a very strong Carryduff team. The game started off with Carryduff on the attack. Caoimhin Rainey had to be at his best in goals to thwart the ‘Duff’ on more than one occasion. As the game ebbed and flowed our young Gaels started to find their rhythm, with Stephen Thompson and Liam Lynn in defence playing staring roles. Just as it looked like the game would finish scoreless, one last drive out of defence saw an interchange of passes by Vincent and Kayne. A great pass by Kayne found Liam, who had popped up on the edge of the box, with Liam shooting low into the bottom corner. The final whistle came a few seconds later and our young Gaels had got off of to a winning start.
There was no time to rest on our laurels as we were up again in the next game, this time against St Paul’s. Once again we started sluggish with Conor Corr in nets being our saviour. But this was all about to change with Kayne upping his game right on cue. Ably supported by JT Toner and with his brother Matthew, both putting in a magnificent shift in defence, Kayne produced a hat trick within 3 minutes and the game was won. St Paul’s managed a deserved consolation goal right at the end and the game ended in a 3-1 victory.
Our final game was against Sarsfields. This undoubtedly was our best performance of the day. The first goal came as a result of resolute defending by Rhea and Caoimhin with the later breaking out of defence and playing an excellent pass to Stephen who broke one tackle before firing a shot in to the top corner from a very tight angle. The next 2 goals had our coaches smiling from ear-to-ear as our team passed the ball with speed and accuracy. The resulting scorers were Caoimhin and Kayne. Sarsfields hit back quickly with a goal but with Adam O’Rawe in defence and Matthew Toner in goals this was the only time that The Paddies would breach our defence. Our last goal in the game came from another fast counter attack with first time passing leading to Vincent finding the space and time to pick his spot, 4-1 the final score.
An excellent performance from all our young Gaels today.
Squad:
Adam O’Rawe, Rhea Pyper, Conor Corr, Vincent McElkerney, Stephen Thompson, JT and Matthew Toner, Liam Lynn, Caoimhin Rainey and Kayne Curley.
