Under 21 F Football Championship.

29/10/2022.

Vs. St Judes

Venue: Sancta Maria.

Result: Ballyboden St. Endas 2.14 St. Judes 4.8 (After Extra Time)

Penalty Shoot Out: Ballyboden 6 St Judes 5

The All-Weather pitch in Sancta Maria was the venue for the clash between ourselves and our near neighbours from across the Dodder on Saturday afternoon.

St. Judes arrived with a large squad of over 25 players determined to make a huge effort.

Referee, Paul Fahey, explained to both sets of mentors that he intended to apply the advantage law to maximum effect during the match which meant that the resulting 80 minutes of football was a most entertaining display played in great spirit by both teams. 

Corner forward, Timmy Cleary, opened the scoring for the home team with a well-taken point which was shortly followed by a well-taken goal for the visitors.

Both defences were affording very little space to the forwards which resulted in very few scores for the early part of the first half.

Darragh Kenny, at full forward, was providing a very good target for quick ball in and this resulted in two very well-taken points by Darragh from play. St Judes replied with a point but the excellent Ballyboden defence had greatly restricted opportunities for the visitors with Joey Donohoe, Richie O’Halloran and Kevin Hickey offering excellent protection to Eoin Donne in goal.

Wing-back Senan Dwyer suffered an unfortunate hamstring injury after 20 minutes with Fiachra Madden arriving from the bench to support the defence and Richie switching to the half-back line.

The half-time whistle arrived with St Judes leading by the minimum – 1-1 to 0-3.

The Boden management team focussed on the great effort being made by the team during the team talk and all the players were determined to continue this in the second half. 

At midfield, Peter Gannon and Daragh Cullen were winning excellent possession and early points from Daragh and Enda Cashman moved the team in front before the visitors replied with a point. A very good passing move resulted in a great finish from Daragh for the first green flag followed by another point from Enda. Micheál Manning and David Monahan were moving forward from the half-back line at every chance with Liam Mac Pháidín and Conor Cullen covering a lot of ground at wing forward.

A rather harsh black card in the sixteenth minute gave a numerical advantage to the visitors which they quickly exploited with a well-taken goal and a point to tie the scoreline.

A superb save from Eoin denied another goal for St Judes before the referee awarded a penalty which was converted.

Edward Phelan and Daniel Ryan came on at this stage as legs began to tire on the surface and excellent points from Conor, Timmy and Enda brought the sides level again before Judes edged again as the clock passed sixty minutes. A good passing move among the forwards forced a free which was calmly converted by Enda to tie the teams at full time 1-10 to 3-4.

Both teams then had to prepare for extra time of 10 minutes each half.

Well-taken points from Eoghan Deignan and Edward gave Boden an early lead but this was followed by a period of dominance by the visitors resulting in a goal and three points before another well-taken point by Timmy narrowed the gap to three at halftime.

Charlie Brady and Eoin Duffy brought fresh effort from the bench at this stage with Peter Gannon also returning.

An early point from the visitors stretched the gap to four before a well-taken point from Darragh Kenny narrowed the gap. The Boden attack was now applying serious pressure and the Judes defence was forced to concede a penalty by pulling Darragh to the ground.

Daragh Cullen calmly scored from the spot with the final whistle coming shortly afterwards leaving the score at 2-14 to 4-08 resulting in penalties to decide the outcome.

The mentors left the players to decide on the five penalty takers with the action moving to the goalmouth at the road end for the shootout.

Enda won the toss and Boden were first to take the penalties with Daragh Cullen slotting home followed with equal accuracy by Enda, Peter, Eoghan and Edward.

In goal, Eoin made valiant efforts to stop the Judes’ spot kicks but all were scored to leave it at 5-5 going to sudden death.

Once again, Daragh expertly placed his kick past the goalie for his fourth goal of the afternoon. A brilliant save from Eoin on the next kick gave victory to the team.

The warmth of the handshakes between the two sides at the end reflected the fantastic effort from both teams which provided a fine game for both sets of supporters.

Thanks to the large Boden support who gave great encouragement to the team throughout the match.

A special thanks to Daire Mac Pháidín and Ciaran CReportashman for doing the umpiring duties and to John Kirwan for the superb photos.

The team has now qualified for the semi-final which will be away to Na Fianna on Saturday 12th November. We wish our injured players a speedy recovery.

Squad:

Eoin Donne, Joey Donohue, Richie O’Halloran, Kevin Hickey, Senan Dwyer, David Monahan, Micheál Manning, Peter Gannon, Daragh Cullen, Liam Mac Pháidín, Enda Cashman, Conor Cullen, Eoghan Deignan, Darragh Kenny, Timmy Cleary, Fiachra Madden, Edward Phelan, Daniel Ryan, Charlie Brady, Eoin Duffy, Luke Kelly, Joe Maguire.

Report: Liam Carter.

Thanks to John Kirwan for the photos. Click here for more.