An arctic breeze that would cut you in two descended on Cherryfield Park on the opening day of the u15 Championship where our Division 1 high-flyers faced a strong St Maurs team riding high at the top of Division 3.
And it was the visiting team who had the strong wind in their sails when they got off to a flyer by opening the scoring with a well-worked point in the first few minutes. It took Ballyboden quite some time to settle into their stride as the Division 3 away side put it up to our lads in the first 15 minutes and looked the stronger of the two sides in the early minutes. However, a quick move down through the middle channel with passes from Ciaran Duggan and Daniel Daly set up the opening goal of the game for Aaron Farrell who slotted home a cool finish from close range. And it wasn’t long before Aaron doubled his goal tally for the day with a fisted goal that was reminiscent of Diego Maradonna’s famous ‘Hand of God’ finish against England in the 1986 World Cup. St Maurs fought back bravely adding another 3 points to bring the scores closer, before another goal from midfield general Ciaran Duggan and nicely-taken free from Ciaran Kiely gave the home side some breathing space and a half-time lead of 3-1 to 0-4. But things could have been a lot different just before the break but for an amazing double save from Ballyboden’s brilliant net minder Scott McDonald.
The second half produced a much better display from the home team with points from Oisin Byrne, Robbie O’Reilly, Aaron Farrell, Ciaran Kiely, Ciaran Duggan, Jimmy Meaney and Rory O’Mahony gave the lads a massive lead. Daniel Daly topped off the day with superbly worked goal to see off a St. Maurs team who could only managed to get one score in the second half against a teak-tough Ballyboden defence. It was a convincing win for the Boden in the end with a 4-8 to 0-5 scoreline, and onwards and upwards to round two for the lads where they will face the winners of Naomh Barrog and Castleknock.
Many thanks to Barry Murray for the photos. For more, see here