True Grit
Academy
Sunday 6th May 2012
Ballincollig v Temple United
The under 10s were in action again at home last Sunday, May 6th, down at the Regional Park. This turned out to be their best game yet and it was a thrilling and tough encounter. Temple settled quickly with an early shot wide, followed quickly by a goal. Ballincollig quickly replied with an equaliser from Josh Ambrose. Ballincollig had to do some tough defending next with a save from Cillian Kierse in goal and Mark Oldham getting a knock for his efforts. Mark, Robbie Walsh and Jordan Murphy, captain for the game, were doing well in defence while Adam Summers, Josh and Scott Kelly were beginning to get more into the game from midfield. Cormac Dineen and Sean Callanan were leading the line well up front. Then, just as he was doing so well, Mark took a very heavy knock requiring Alex Hill to come on as his replacement. This was followed by an injury to a couple of Temple players as the tackles were flying in.
The second period was in the balance with Temple and Ballincollig having equal spells of possession but with few shots on target. Then Temple upped the pressure and Jamie Slavin, Jordan, Sean O’Donoghue, Robbie and Alex all had to defend well. Then from a Temple corner Cillian had to make an amazing double save, first he dived to his right pushing out the first shot and then he had to dive back across to his left and with a strong left hand he pushed the shot around the post for a corner. It was quite astounding keeping from the young man. Then from this corner, both Jordan and Sean O’Donoghue cleared the ball off the line. It was great defending by Ballincollig. However Temple finally made the pressure count when they scored a scrappy goal.
Ballincollig started the final period well when Mark and Alex worked the ball down the left wing, with Cormac and Bryan involved in the move, that resulted in the Temple keeper spilling the high ball and Bryan reacted quicker to stick it in the back of the net. Temple immediately attacked and yet again Cillian made a great save putting the ball out for another corner. From the corner Alex made a great block but he took it full in the chest, but despite this he soldiered on. It was end to end stuff now and Jamie, Adam, Sean, Scott and even Bryan were helping defend. It was Scott’s turn to take one in the chest for the team as it was turning out to be quite a bruising encounter for both sides. Ballincollig then finally broke forward and it was Scott who took the chance and buried a left footed shot to seal it. When the final whistle blew the joy was spontaneous, as this was a hard fought game and the lads showed how much they wanted it. The coaches were really proud of every one of them.
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