Thursday night saw St. Brendans Park u12A squad make the short journey to take on Tralee Dynamo’s in the second of the season’s league games and the first one away from home.
Having had to come from behind against Listowel Celtic in the previous league game the challenge was to start the game on the front foot. That wasn’t exactly what happened though and Dynamo’s started the game strongly and our defence of Daragh, Jack, Sean and Josh had plenty to do in the early exchanges in from of Liam in goal. It wasn’t too long however before our midfield of Conor, David and Cianan started to get a bit more of the ball. We began to get out head’s up and pass the ball wide and with purpose. It was on one of these occasions that Daragh, getting forward from the back played a nice through ball to Colin who took the ball in his stride and placed an unstoppable shot to the bottom left corner for the opening goal of the game. Park had the momentum now and it wasn’t long before Colin’s pace got him onto another through ball from Cianan and he finished it to the net again to make the score 2-0 to the Park. Dynamo’s were rattled at this stage and at the midpoint of the half a pass from Josh to Colin who beat the defender and then the keeper to pass the ball into an empty net to make the score 3-0 and to complete his hat-trick in quick time. As the scoreline suggests the Park were well on top at this stage but as often happens in sport things can change quickly.
The park lads at times started to take a little too much out of the ball and allowed Dynamo’s to win possession in dangerous locations and on one of these occasions a goalmouth scramble resulted in Dynamo’s getting on the scoresheet, 3-1 to the Park.
Changes were made with Cillian coming in up front, Ben and Samuel adding to the back 4 and Danny and Venice coming in to midfield. Dynamo’s were seeing a lot of the ball at this stage and won a free close to the edge of the box. Park defended quite deep and with lots of bodies in the box the ball made its way into the corner with Liam unsighted. Suddenly game on, 3-2 to Park.
Momentum had shifted and the Park needed to up their concentration which they did. Just before half-time there was an important moment as Daragh went on a long run, beating a couple of defenders before blasting one into the net with a great finish.
HT: 4-2 to Park
The coaches made a few formation changes at half-time to give the side more width. This worked a treat as for the majority of the second half the Park controlled possession and territory. They played some excellent football throughout. They did however find the Dynamo’s goalkeeper in outstanding form for the most part, making some excellent saves. The Park boys did score another two goals through Cianan. The first made its way across the line after he got his head to a corner and the final goal was a fine finish to the bottom right hand corner after good work on the left from Colin to make it 6-2 on the night.
FT: 6-2
A good performance and result but a number of lessons learned also. The boys know that there is plenty of work to be done which continues at training on Wednesday at 6-7.
Match report by Pat Doody .
