The park Lads welcomed Castleisland in the Round 16 of the Kerry Cup, both sides met in the semi final last seaon with the Park winning that clash, so the visitors were looking to avenge that defeat, but again the Park Lads were too strong particularly in the second half to run out comfortablle winners.
1st half
With a severe wind helping the visitors the park Lads were under pressure at the back, upto the first 15min period both teams had chances with Castleisland probably having the best of the exchanges and deserved to be atleast 2 goals to the good but to be fair to Gavin in goals he was up to the task and made some great saves to keep the sides level during this period.
The 15min mark and the game started to change in favour of the Park, with the lads struggling to get their game going it took a fine strike from Sean from a pinpoint pass from mervin to open the scoring 1-0 up, 2 mins later Mervin hit the net with a great thru ball from Rhys on the left side of defence, 2-0 to the park. The Park sored their third with a long overlapping run from Nathan to finish at the nearpost. 3-0 at the break.
2nd Half
With the wind at their back and a commanding lead the park lads took over in all sectors of the pitch, Liam came in for an injured mervin and started to link up well with the front men, 3 mins in and liams persitance paid off with a fine ball to Sean who dispathed to the corner, 4-0 up. 5 mins in and Junior made a penetrating run from the back to pick out Conor who sidefooted with the outside of the right boot to the roof of the net, 5-0 and the game was over a s a contest, 5mins later Sean linked up with Liam to fire into the back of the net to make it 6-0.
Tide came on for Nathan at centrehalf to strengthen the defence, The goal of the tie came on the 17min mark with a fine sequence of is time passing on the left started from Rhys into conor onto colin, with Rhys receiving the return on the overlap whipping the ball across goal to Sean who sidefooted to the net for his hatrick. 2 mins later Kevin finished to an empty net after slipping passed the keeper after a good one two with Liam, Sean finshed the scoring on the final whistle to make it 9-0.
A good 2nd half performance from the lads to got thru to the next round of the Kerry Cup.
Players of Note: Colin, Gavin, Armin, Liam,Tide, Rhys,
Man of the Match: Sean Mc Grath, great work rate particularly in 2nd half, showed great movement & compose in front of goal.
Squad on the Day:Gavin Doody, Kevin Goulding, Armin Heinrich, Junior Ankomah, Colin Walsh, Mervyn Shalemba, Nathan Gleeson, Liam Tobin, Sean McGrath, Greg Scanlon, Conor O’ Sullivan, Tide Osinubi, Rhys Keane.
Reminder: Training times next will be Mon and Thurs @ 7-8pm. With the up and coming Nat Cup match v Leixlip, all players must attend all training sessions.
