Academy going strong
Last weekend, our eager under 8s travelled down the Model Farm Road to play Wilton on their fantastic all weather facility. First blood went to the away team when Ryan Forde went on a superb solo run to slam home his first of four goals. Both teams were very evenly matched, but Ballincollig had outstanding goal keepers. Brian Smith in goals for the first two periods was brilliant. Kara Lacey showed she’s just as tough and brave as any boy with some great stops to her credit in the second two periods. Wilton found it very difficult to get the ball past the Ballincollig team. Our other starlet Ciara Healy, who only recently joined, really enjoyed her first taste of what it’s like to play for Ballincollig AFC – well done Ciara.
Eoin O’Callaghan was our box-to-box player on the day and ran his heart out for his team. Jonathon McLean and David O’Keeffe again showed their true mettle with some sterling defending and last ditch tackling. Callum Kearney put in a great days work closing down Wilton at every opportunity. Matthew Bourke’s clever play and clinical pass let in Ryan Forde for his last goal. After all the drama the game went to penalties and the deciding penalty was scored by Jack Doyle, who rifled his shot home to the bottom left corner. Kara showed us why she’s the boss by bravely pulling off some excellent saves.
For the second match Ballincollig settled much better. James McArdle made some good attempts at goal in the first half. Ronan Hennessy made some good saves and Ryan Crowley and Aaron Meade-O’Hanlon did some terrific work in defence. Despite the best efforts of the team Ballincollig were down a goal at half time. Sean O’Hanlon-Lane put Wilton under pressure putting in some great tackles in midfield, along with Jason O’Connor. At the beginning of the second half Ballincollig introduced their ‘impact subs’ Evan Cooke and Paul Cooney. With Stephen Wills dominating midfield the ‘impact subs’ gave Wilton a torrid time with Evan Cooke slotting home a nice pass from Paul Cooney. In the last gasp of the match Paul Cooney managed to curl in a ball from the far right hand side of the pitch to give a well deserved victory to Ballincollig
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