A new year begins for the Park Lads with their 1st home match of the season against Killarney Ath.
The first 15 min’s of the match were controlled by our lads with the central midfield pairing of Evan and Shane supplying some fine ball into the forward line of David Fitzy and Jacob, with Fitzy unlucky not to score with a superb strike that required a fine save from the Athletic goalie.
Alan and Gearoid on the right linked up well with some great passing moves with Gearoid providing some great crosses but the Park could not manage to find the back of the Killarney net.
Suddenly Killarney broke from defense and against the run of play the Park were one down and the game swung in the momentum of the Athletic boys with the park central defence of Gary and Dylan being put under severe pressure, but true to their dogged determination the managed to keep their lines clear until the half time break.
The 2nd half and with a slight breeze at their backs the Park lads were on fire and began the 2nd half as they did in the 1st with tremendous displays of passing and switching play from right to left.
Owen Minors was introduced into the game playing in the forward line for the first time this season and what an impact he made cutting through the Athletic defence like a knife through butter but that elusive 1st goal didn’t seem as if it was going to come.
10 Min’s into the 2nd half , James L came into central midfield and Eoin L left back and they certainly made their presence felt with Eoin, Kiwi and Minors playing spectacular football on the left that the great Barcelona would be proud of.
5 mins later and Killarney struck the Park net again but was disallowed for offside, this kicked the park into and another gear and they were justly rewarded with a fine strike from James from outside the box that tantalisingly lobbed the keeper, 1- 1 with 10mins to go and it was all Park, shots from David Fitzy, James L , Eoin l, Kiwi and Gearoid D were being riffled at the Athletic keeper.
The Park lads were camped in the Killarney half of the pitch and nearly got the winner with five minutes to go with a fine passing move between Kiwi and Minors, with the final strike from Minors beating the goalkeeper but to be denied by the inside of the post, with the Killarney defence first to react in clearing their line.
Overall it was a fine team display by the Park lads particularly in the 2nd half and were unlucky to come away with 3 points, a good confidence booster to the start of the year and for the rest of the season.
Training continues every Monday and Friday 7.30-8.30pm
