Our u16 football teams were both in action today in the Knockout of the Championship and Shield tournament...It was mixed fortunes for the lads but overall across the both teams we got great heart and performances.

Green Team ( A ) vs O'Tooles

Our Green team travelled to Blunden Drive in the Quarter final of the C championship, after qualifying out of our group second we were scheduled to play the winners O'Tooles of one of the other groups in an open draw. We know O'Tooles very well having played them in Feile at u14 and had a few battles over the following years. We knew regardless of what the scoreboard said, it was going to be a tough physical game.

Our lads started very well in the 1st half and we had a bit of a wind at or back.. across the the team we kept to the basics focussing on what the team do well sharp crisp long passing compliented by a running game.. We took the early scores in the 1st Quarter and it was realitively still very close 0-4 to 0-1, we kept our discipline and kept woring hard in the 2nd quarter coming out on top.. and coming in at half time at 1-6 to 0-2

Second half we spoke of discipline and making sure we did not concede any goals. O'Tooles pushed on and got two well worked scores, but the lads got the little bit of scare that was required an we stepped up a gear to come in at after 3rd Quarter 2-9 to 0-4

Final quarter and the lads were in their grove and you could see it with the smiles on their faces that today was one of those days when we got the performance.. From in Goal, defence through midfield and up front it was a faultless performance... We succesfully finished out the game 2-11 to 0-6

The lads are now through to the Semi Final of the championship...

White team ( B ) vs St Vincents

We travelled into the unknown to Marino and the home of St Vincents, we were unsure of what team we would meet from St Vincents.. .We sponke of three focus areas - Hard Word Work/Focus, Playing in Front and Passing Accuracy ( to the chest )

We played on St Vins All weather pitch ( not a patch on our own AW ) the lads were used to the surface and bounce of the ball... We started very well and we went in after the 1st Quater 1-1 to 0-3 we played with confidence and on the front foot in the 1st half and the message was more of the same

The second quater started an Vincents got a couple of soft scores, but we kept working and got a couple of scores of our own.. going in at half time 2-2 to 3-05

We started the second half confident that we could push on, with a couple of changes we made some progress and were a bit more accurate up front.. but the 1st half efforts started to toll on the lads and we simply ran out of steam in this quarter and unfortunatly St Vincents hit us for some good goals on the back of some overlaps... The lads kept pushing but the damage was done...

Unfortunatly we lost out to St Vincents.. but credit to the lads they played their hearts out.... It was always going to be a development year for the lads and we are very happy with the commitment and development of the lads, most of the team will be still eligible to play u16 next year.. This year will really stand to them and given them confidence.

So for both teams lots still to do this year. We will schedule a few challenge games for the white team to prepare for pre-season and for the Green team we will focus on the Football champ