U14 League Quarter Finals

Clone 5 – 03 : Cappagh 8 – 10

Cappagh U14 boys had to dig deep and really fight to progress to the semi-finals of the Tyrone Grade 1 League. This was a hard game in conditions that seen both sunshine and torrential rain, but all this was forgotten when the referee blew up time after 2 periods of entertaining football for Cappagh to progress to their second semi-final of the year – and well deserved it was too. The fast passing moves, finishing and determination were a spectacle to behold led out by their captain for the day, Adam Potts.

Having won the toss, and choosing to play with the wind, Cappagh got off to a fantastic start with a well taken goal from Ruari Meyler very early on. Ruari was the first of 7 forwards to score on the day – all six starting forwards got on the score sheet, in addition to the half-time sub, both midfielders and the attacking centre-half back, Ciaran Carlin.

The fact that Clonoe scored 5 goals shouldn’t take away from the ever-reliable performance of the back line. This may be a focussed (ok it is blatantly biased) opinion, but, the full back-line of Cappagh must be the best at this level. They were bombarded at times by a very attacking aware Clone team, but, the lads held their nerve and coped with everything that was fired at them. The half-back line were once again on top of their game, their marking and determination to win the ball was a treat to watch – Fergal Meenagh, you were a star today! Oh, yes, the keeper – 5 goals is a very poor indication to the quality of play from this lad. Sean’s catching under a high ball, his distribution to get play started again and his kick-outs against a really strong wind should be remembered – not the opportunistic goals. Matty Sweeney came on to the team with 15 to go to replace a very battered and bruised Nathan Donnelly – Matty, did really well, a worthy replacement for another fantastic player.

The midfield – what more can be said about these lads. Both worked relentlessly, both defending and attacking. Seeing Potsy and RB running out of the back line with the ball is such a motivator for the whole team. They relieved pressure all over the field, and both registered scores.

When an entire forward line scores, you can ask no more and no script is necessary to let the reader know how well they played – they were clinical, registering the highest scoreline of the season. For the writer, the highlight score was the last goal of the game. Imagine the scene – Cappagh are 13 pts ahead with minutes to go. The ball is pumped in as an attempted score, but, drags wide. Ryan Fay follows the ball, at a speed that would make you think it was the start of the game, rather than the end, he’s fortunate because the surface water stops the ball going out over the end line. He picks up the ball first time, turns on sixpence (for U14 boys, that’s a very small coin), cuts inside one man, then cuts inside a second before firing to the bottom left corner – a brilliant goal! Big thanks must go to Peter O’Kane who coached the boys on Thursday night past. The focus of his training was on finishing – good work Peter! See they were listening and you should never doubt your coaching abilities again! “Do That!”

Overall, a job well done. The reward for success is yet to be determined, but, no doubt the semi-final draw will be made this week so make sure you visit killycloghergaa.com for fixtures. Focus now sets on the U14 Championship. Again opposition from the ‘East’ will ensure a really hard fought game. Good luck lads.

Finally, thank you to Cappagh Ladies for helping us out with our jersey problem – it was greatly appreciated.

Next game : Cappagh –v- Coalisland, Tyrone Grade 1 Championship : Saturday 23rd May (Time and Venue to be confirmed).

Training continues on Tuesday @ 5.30pm.

Cappagh 3-11 - Naomh Mhuire 2-07

Tuesday 12th May 2009 saw the Under 14 Boys heading into the Quarter-Finals of the Tyrone Championship. The fantastic weather was only surpassed by the quality football displayed by both teams, playing fast, direct football.

Both teams attacked from the beginning, but, in the end, it was the Cappagh defensive unit that made the real difference. Rory Murray was immense – very little got past him and what did, was more than capably covered up by the superb corner-backs Liam Chism and the solid Shane Leonard. The work-rate of these 3 gave the keeper, Sean Fox, very little to do – however, that is not to take away from the ‘safe hands’ under the dropping ball, and the total accuracy of the kick-outs – as usual, a very good day at the office for Sean – couldn’t be faulted for either goals.

The team was led out by Ciaran ‘Carly’ Carlin – and what a performance – he was everywhere, the highlight being one of his now characteristic power runs forward, this time ending in a superb point. When Carly was going forward he was well covered by Fergal Meenagh and Nathan Donnelly. The two boys swept up everything coming down the flanks – they were brilliant. To think that Fergal is still U13 and Nathan is still U12 shows that the future is bright for years to come.

This was a team controlled by a new’ish look midfield. There was doubt at the start of the game over the fitness of Adam Potts; however, at the end of the game, there was little doubt about his contention for the ‘Man of the Match’ award. When he wasn’t back defending, he was driving forward, scoring points and bagging a goal that lifted a team feeling the pressure from a strong Naomh Mhuire. Adam was partnered by the ever reliable Ryan ‘RB’ Bradley. RB had the most difficult job of the night – marking the Naomh Mhuire ‘star player’ – this guy was good, really good, everything went through him – but, RB was better, even finding time to score the second goal of the night.

The forward unit did extremely well. The middle was totally controlled by the strong Matty McCloy and ever troublesome Paul ‘Macca’ McAleer. These two shared the role of full-forward and centre-half forward, and both were busy scoring and making scores. Matty took some great points off his left boot, and saw a fantastic effort rocket off the cross-bar, while Macca took a superb pass from Corrie ‘Colty’ Colton to calmly slot the ball into the net for the third goal of the night. Colty was in fine form giving his 3 markers a torrid time - a really strong performance. The other corner was also in fine form, in the first half by Caolan Haughey and then by Declan McGinn in the second half. Caolan, not the biggest in the world, fought like a lion the whole time he was on the field, winning ball and feeding the other attackers. Then came Declan’s turn – as usual his passing was impeccable, and he too tormented the tiring corner-backs firing over an excellent point from past the ‘21’.

The two corners were fed by the non-stop running and battling of the half-forwards. Three were used in all, Rory Meyler, Stephen Dooher and Ryan Fay. These lads never stopped the whole night and proved a real handful for the Naomh Mhuire half-backs. Rory made a real impact in the first half, taking the ball from the half-back and firing it forward to the corners – a really strong performance that was matched by the hard work and effort of his replacement Ryan, who did exceptionally well to come on and adapt to the speed of the game. Stephen had an exceptionally good second-half, he won the ball and kept possession, taking the pressure off the half-back line on more than one occasion. When these boys play well – the team wins.

Overall, it was a brilliant game of football played in near-perfect conditions. Acknowledgement must go to the Naomh Mhuire coach who came to the lads at the end of the match. He congratulated the boys on the win, stating that he thought it was the best game of underage football that he had witnessed this year. He also stated that there are other good teams in the ‘East’, but, that he knows that Cappagh have the beating of all of them.

Training continues on Thursday 14th May at 5.30pm and the next game is the Quarter-Finals of the League away to Clonoe on Saturday 16th May at 2pm.

Well done boys!