Park u15 clinched the league title in listowel today after beating Killarney Celtic 3-2 in a playoff.. We started brightly forcing a number of corners but couldn’t take advantage of any if them.. Celtic started to come in to the game and were very dangerous on the break.. The first shot in anger came from Ferdia O’Brien who’s effort from 25yards was tipped round the post from the Celtic keeper.. The game started to get scrappy and with 10mins left in the 1st half we failed to stop a cross being delivered and the Celtic striker powered his header past our keeper Conor Hurley from 8yards and we were 1-0 down with the lads reeling from the goal only a matter of minutes later Celtic got a corner from which we failed to clear and the ball was lashed home from 10yards to make it 2-0 at half time..
A daunting task for our boys but they never dropped their heads and came out for the 2nd half determined to win.. Kieran Carmody was brought in to replace Sean Collins with Andrew pushed to right back. We continued to play our football and not rush by pumping long balls and it finally paid off 10mins in to the 2nd half when Luke slipped Fergal Ryan in behind the Celtic defence and was brought down.. This gave our captain Jesse Stafford Lacey the chance to level from the spot which he took firing his penalty to the right bottom corner it was now game on.. Jesse and Ferdia started to control the midfield and with Tommy lynch and Jamie Clifford putting the shackles on the Celtic striker we grew in confidence.. Fergal was starting to become a menace to the Celtic defence with some great efforts that were well saved.. Karl Mullins surging runs from left back resulted in a flurry of corners 1 of which we finally took advantage of.. With the Celtic defence asleep Luke took it short to Jamie Clifford who took it on and smashed his effort from the corner of the box goal wards and with a slight deflection the ball went in off the post to make it 2-2 with 10 to play.. To make it better this was Jamie’s 1st goal since he joined us last season from killorglin well worth the wait. The Celtic heads began to drop and at that point it looked like there would only be 1 winner and that was us.. We kept pushing for the winner and our persistence paid off when a strike from Ferdia O’Brien was parried by the keeper Kieran Carmody was on hand to Cooley slot home from 12yards with only 4mins left.. We then started to drop deep to protect our lead with Jamie and Tommy putting their heads on everything Celtic threw at them.. With a minute left we gave away a free kick in a dangerous area but keeper Conor Hurley came out to collect it to ease the pressure.. The referee finally blew for full time and the celebrations began it was a cracking game of 2 halves but a game I thought we deserved to win.. A great way to end our season and the lads deserve all the credit for the work they put in.. So there ya go Park u15 League Champions 2012/2013 ..
Match Report By D.Magee .
