The under 14 footballers lost out to Sarsfields by the narrowest of margins in the qualifying stages of this competition, which was played in Piercestown on Monday 19th March.
Feile Peil competition.
The under 14 footballers lost out to Sarsfields by the narrowest of margins in the qualifying stages of this competition, which was played in Piercestown on Monday 19th March. The appalling weather conditions made good football very difficult, however the Shels boys were up to the task when they quickly settled in their opening match against Glynn Barntown with Conor Tobin off the mark with a point after three minutes. The wind- assisted Shelmaliers continued their dominance with Craig McCabe and Shane Bierney pointing, before Eoghan Fitzgerald fired to the net after some fine team play. Niall Tobin and Glen Murphy completed the Shels' scoring in the first half to leave a half time score of 1-5 to Barntown's 0-0. In the second half the Shelmaliers needed to defend against the wind well with Paraic O Leary, AJ Lehane, Jack Murphy, Eoin O Leary, Dean Corrigan and Kevin Byrne doing a professional job. The only score in the second half saw Jake Kehoe registering his team’s second goal, to leave a fulltime score of 2-5 to 0-0.
A very strong Sarsfields side provided our second opponents and again it was a game of two halves which was influenced by the weather conditions. Playing with the wind in the first half, the Shels got the start they wanted when Craig McCabe fired in a beautifully taken free straight to the roof of the net. Continuing this dominance in this half, Conor Tobin shot over a point to leave a half time score of 1-1 to 0-0, with a lot of the talk at half time on how a Shane Bierney shot stayed out when hitting the foot of the upright. The Sarsfields came out strongly in the second half and again it needed some outstanding defending from the Shelmaliers. The Wexford town side shot over two unanswered points after five minutes and after some untidy play in the Shels square they got the goal that had been threatened for so long. There was some frantic play from both teams in the closing five minutes with each team having a chance to change the outcome but the Sarsfields held out to win by the narrowest of margins 1-2 to 1-1.
The final game of the day was against St. Martins again the Shels were dominant in the first half and they had points from Sean Byrne AJ Lehane (2) with Glen Murphy getting an all important goal to leave a half time score of 1-3 to 0-1. There was no scoring in the second at the weather conditions got worst which made it impossible to play any football.
The Shelmaliers panel on the day were:
Neil Rossiter, Eoin O Leary, Paraic O Leary, Jack Murphy, Kevin Byrne, AJ Lehane, Dean Corrigan, Craig McCabe, Glen Murphy, Mark Mythen, Conor Tobin, Eoghan Fitzgerald, Niall Tobin, Shane Bierney, Simon Murphy, Jake Kehoe, Sean Byrne, Stephen Dwyer, Damian Drennan, Tommy Donnelly, Robbie Hynes and Christopher Scallan,