U11s Down Gannon

Dungannon (4) v Clondalkin U 11 (6)
25 April 2009

Clondalkin U11s made the long trip to Dungannon at the weekend and came away with a notable scalp taking victory over a senior Division 1 club. The victory follows a run of good matches for the young team who were again without the management of the green fingered Rob Hayes.

They got off to a wonderful start with Eoghan Ennis going the length of the pitch from the kick off to score what had to be the try of the game. A rout looked on the cards when Evan barged over for his first try soon after but to their credit Dungannon responded with a try in the corner. The teams traded scores and huge hits up until half time which saw Clondalkin go in leading 4-3 at the break thanks to tries from Ross and Eoghan with his second.

A half time dispute between the Clondalkin U12 Management, whose team had suffered a defeat earlier that today, and the referee took place with Tom Duffy and Barney Bracken arguing that the score should be 4-4. The dispute was settled when a Dungannon official stepped in and clarified that Clondalkin were in fact 4-3 ahead. Some cynics would claim that Tom and Barney were envious of the performance of the U11s who were coached by Gordon Condell and Derek Murtagh.

Team coach Gordon Condell's half time team talk was a simple one telling the team to keep doing what they were doing in attack and start waking up and fanning out across the midfield when in defense.

Dungannon came out well a the start of the 2nd half and applied huge amounts of pressure on the Clondalkin try line but Clondalkins resolve held firm. A break away try scored by Ross saw Clondalkin relieve some pressure to go 5-3 in front. Clondalkin then began to exert some pressure on Dungannon with Evan going over for his 2nd try of the game to make it 6-3.

Dungannon started to apply some serious pressure on the Clondalkin line and the game looked as though it could still go either way. Tough tacking from Darren, captain Steven, Nathan and Eoghan saw Clondalkins defensive line hold tight until Dungannon eventually got over making it 6-4 with the last play of the game.

Coach Derek Murtagh had this to say after the game "This team has developed as the season has progressed. The players play as a team and altough we have some great individuals it is the fact each player plays for the man beside him that makes us good. Eoghan scored two tries today but it was the way that he took control of the defense that earned him the manof the match award".

Added by Murts April 27, 2009 (11:31AM)

This article hasn't been commented yet.

Have a comment? Please register