Last Saturday morning our U14 Division 1 Feile Footballers gathered in the clubhouse at the early hour of 8.30am for the traditional pre Feile photograph. After the papparazi were happy with their snaps it was off to Malahide for the day’s festivities.
Our first game was against our near neighbours Ballinteer St. John’s and what a start we got with 1 goal and 1 point each from Scott O’Sullivan and Ciaran Duggan in the first 4 minutes. 2 more goals from Ciaran Duggan and 2 points from Cathal O’Sullivan followed to push Boden further ahead. With Evan Nugent doing a very tight marking job on Ballinteer’s tailisman Boden finished the half with 2 further goals to leave the half time score 6-4 to 0-2. In the 2nd half Boden kicked on with further points from Ciaran Kiely (2) and Scott O’Sullivan (2) which allowed the management to rest players for the further battles ahead.
Full time score Boden 6-8 Ballinteer 2-3.
The 2nd game was against the hosts St. Sylvester’s and with the confidence coursing through the Boden boys veins we got off to flyer again this time Conor Sweeney goaled early and further points from Ciaran Duggan and Scott O’Sullivan, the Boden Twin Towers, left the halftime score 1-2 to 0-1 to Boden. With the hill to aid the hosts in the 2nd half Syl’s came at Boden in waves but stout defending by Leon Kennedy, Fionn Keating McDermott and Jack O’Connor kept Syl’s to 4 points which left the minimum between the sides with 10 minutes to go. Then the strangest of decisions by the ref when he blew the whistle to award a free to Syl’s on the 13m line but when the shot ended up in the net he let the goal stand. This is when Boden really dug deep to find the reserves from somewhere to close the gap to 2 points when Ciaran Duggan scored a point. Boden were relentless now and had three more chances before the end but unfortunately all three shots narrowly missed the target.
Full time score Boden 1-3 St. Sylvester’s 1-5.
The 3rd game against Naomh Barrog was now basically a quarter final. Barrog began the stronger and led by 2 points before Boden hit a puple patch and had points from Daniel Daly, Scott O’Sullivan and Ciaran Kiely before Cathal O’Sullivan burst through to rifle the ball to the net. Back came Barrog with 4 unansered points before Boden closed the half with a point from Cathal O’Sullivan and a goal and a point from the impressive Ciaran Duggan to leave the halftime score Boden 3-5 Naomh Barrog 0-6. The 2nd half began with another Boden goal from Ciaran Duggan. Barrog now came at Boden in waves and hit 3 goals and 2 points to level the game with 5 minutes left. This five minutes turned into 10 as both physios were busy with injured players but this Boden team never give up and with the last kick of the game up popped Evan Nugent to score the winning point to loud cheers from the large Boden support. The physio was needed again when the Boden coach popped his calf muscle while celebrating the winning score, maybe in his head he thought he was playing his Feile 34 years on from his last one!!
Final score Boden 4-6 Barrog 3-8.
At the end of the group stages Boden were on the road again travelling to Clontarf for a game against Lucan.
Semi final – the dressing room in Clontarf resembled an A and E casualty ward with that many Boden boys queuing up to be strapped and bandaged. It had been a long day and the injuries were beginning to take their toll.
The semi final began well for Boden who had a goal disallowed and two clearcut chances saved by the Lucan keeper before they struck for the opening point. This was answered by a Ciaran Kiely point but Lucan then hit 2-5 to stretch their lead before Jimmy Meaney scored a point just before the half time whistle.
In the 2nd half Lucan took the game away from Boden 3-3 as the Boden legs had nothing more left to give.
Final score Boden 0-2 Lucan 5-9.
Ballyboden St. Enda’s Squad: Scott Mc Donald, Nathan Comerford, James Rusk, Conor Butler, Fionn Keating Mc Dermott, Jack O’Connor, Oisin Byrne, Oisin Murray, Evan Nugent, Leon Kennedy, Jim Kennedy, Conor Sweeney, Barry McGuire, Ciaran Kiely, Cathal O’Sullivan, Michael Murphy, Jimmy Meaney, Ciaran Duggan, Scott O’Sullivan, Daniel Daly and Rory O’Mahony.
The mentors of this great bunch of warriors would like to thank the parents and famillies for their great support and encouragement throughout the day, a bright future lies ahead for these boys.
On Sunday as the boys ate their traditional pizzas, the squad themselves voted Ciaran Duggan their Boden player of the Feile Peil. Huge congradulations to Ciaran on winning this award as he was a huge doubt with a shoulder injury coming up to Feile.