The 1st year’s played their first cup match in the second round against St. Joseph’s, having been given a bye in the first round. After some good exchanges between both teams in the early stages of the game, Leonard Dal Santo Paulick surged forward and was tackled just inside the penalty area before the ball broke to Finn McTiernan and he coolly rounded the despairing diving tackle of a defender before despatching the ball to the net.
We held our lead for only a few minutes before a break down the wing from one of the opponents led to a shot that Marcelo Malpica just failed to stop entering the goal. The game continued in a closely fought manner but as half time approached, Finn McTiernan found himself in some space and shot well to the goal from just outside the area. The second half continued in the same vein, with chances at both ends. Marcelo had to come to the rescue on some occasions with crucial saves at crucial times before we won a free kick to the left of the penalty area. Milos Djordovic stood over the ball and measured an excellent shot to the top left hand corner to give us a two goal cushion. St Joseph’s continued to trouble our goal and eventually won a penalty which was converted with what proved to be the last kick of the game.
In contrast, the under 17s experienced the opposite extreme of emotion as they exited their cup by means of a penalty shootout. The game against St. Aidan’s was toing and froing when a cross to the backpost from an opponent eluded the St. Kilian’s defensive line and the player ghosted in to finish to the bottom left hand corner. The response from St. Kilian’s was immediate and Mohammad Mukhtar went on a dribbling, mazy run from the midfield area. He skipped over a number of lunging tackles before he was eventually felled in the penalty area to win us a penalty. Team captain, Felix Hederman, stepped to take the responsibility of getting us back in the game and he made no mistake from the spot. St. Aidan’s came back into the game and had a few near misses but Ryan Schackermann made some well improvised saves with his feet to deny their attempts.
The second half saw St. Kilian’s dominate the game but could only manage the single goal. Finn Redmond was giving them a great deal of trouble as he went on several runs, beating three and four opponents at a time. On one of these runs, his shot from outside the area carried too much power and accuracy for the keeper to have any chance of repelling the effort. He had another effort that went inches wide and Muhammad was unlucky to see his close range attempt cannon off the crossbar. Several other chances went astray and as the game entered injury time, St. Kilian’s paid the price as St. Aidan’s breached our defence for one of the few times in the second half and Ryan was left helpless as the striker finished low into the corner to send the game into the penalty stage. Unfortunately, we had the misfortune of missing two of our spotkicks and St Aidan’s progressed to the next round.
The under 15s team played their final league group game against Synge Street, needing a positive result to qualify. They took the lead early on when Patryk Skrobol won possession on the corner of the penalty area and quickly took a shot to the bottom corner that gave their keeper little chance. However, disaster struck as Synge Street stormed back and scored two quick-fire goals to take a lead into the half time break. St. Kilian’s dusted themselves down and started the second half with a renewed vigour.
In the first few minutes of the second period, great work down on the right wing by David O’Connell saw him break behind the opposing defence before he sent a pinpoint cross to the backpost where Patryk doubled his goal tally with a cool side footed finish to the net. St. Kilian’s were getting the upper hand in midfield, with John O’Connell, Wiktor Sobotka and Riliey Bocus dominating the exchanges. Wiktor broke forward and before their defender to close him down, he unleashed a powerful shot that went in off the post and gave us the lead. The flow of the game continued in our favour as we introduced some new players from the bench. David got in on the goalscoring act when he made it 4-1 with a calmly taken finish before Elis Kelly added a fifth when he controlled a long range cross and then eluded the defender before finishing.
Having qualified from their league group, a few days later, the 15s were making the long journey to Donaghmede to play Gaelcholaiste Reachrann in the third round of the cup. The journey and later kick off time seemed to effect the team as they took a little while to settle into the game. However, they were competing well but then conceded from a free kick near the end line. In the second half, they seemed energised and were getting a good grip on the game but then fell further behind when they scored from a well delivered corner. The boys roared back into the game when Jorge Nash-Ramanos controlled a difficult ball, then skipped past an opponent before taking a shot that totally eluded their keeper.
This was the chance they needed and they began to dominate the game from the midfield work of Riley and Cathal O’hAlllin, with assistance from Wiktor from the left wing. It led to numerous good combinations between Elis, David and Jorge that led to a number of chances but, unfortunately, we weren’t able to convert them to the elusive equaliser. Further misfortune befell us as we continued the quest for the equaliser when we conceded another goal which ultimately was enough for the Donaghmede side to progress to the next round.
Al Sugg
Sport Teacher
