Our U14 campaign got off to a winning start on Sunday 28th Feburary in the Feile B football competition against Adare in Mick Neville Park. This was our first game in defence of the cup which we won last year and eventually led to a wonderful feile experience in Wexford.
The game was played on the astro pitch so the conditions were ideal and both teams provided a skilful entertaining game with some fine scores by both sides.
Watched by a big support including Eoghan O’Connor who is recovering from injury and captained by Rory Hannan, we got off to a good start and strong play from our midfielders Darragh O’Keefe and Patrick Dolphin got us on the front foot early.
Patrick got our first score from a free and soon after Fergal Egan made a surging run past a couple of defenders and sent a powerful shot to the net to give us an early lead. Patrick added another free midway through the first half to extend the lead.
Our defence and midfield were driving us forward and we were unlucky not to add more scores with shots against the bar and a rasping shot from Sam Riordan that hit the post.  The pressure finally paid off with a poacher’s goal by Rian O’Byrne after good pressure on the defence by Nial Khan and John O’Donnell.
Adare came more into the game as the half wore on and added a free to make the score 2-2 to 0-1 at half time.

It was important to start strong in the second half and our midfielders combined well again to add a point early in the second half.
This was followed by another free and a goal by Patrick which put us in a strong position heading in the latter part of the game. Adare then had their period of dominance but our defence battled strongly to keep opportunities to a minimum. They added a number of points but ultimately time ran out and the goals proved the difference between the 2 teams as we ran out deserving winners on a scoreline of 3-4 to 0-6.

Team on the day was David Bourke, Luke Bovenizer, Rory Hannan, Jack Duggan, Brandon Nash, John Bourke, Ciaran Kennedy, Darragh O’Keefe, Patrick Dolphin, Fergal Egan, Sam Riordan, Chris Shanahan, Rian O’Byrne, Nial Khan, John O’Donnell, Chris Lyons, Conor Hannan, Darragh Walsh.