Super Saints arrive home in fine style

ST DOMINIC’S SHAMROCKS 7 1

BACK on home soil after an expensive revamp of the Friary Field, the St Dominic’s under-12 representatives turned in a five star first half performance led by Michael Kirby that had them out of reach at the break.

They registered by then a handful of goals without reply, but to Shamrocks great credit they made it a much more even contest after the break and only for the crossbar Joshua McGuinness’s rasping volley would have made the score two all in the second-half. He and Ciaran Levins tirelessly battled away against the strong current that the winners built up from the kick-off with Kirby driving them forward.

However, there was a potentially game changing moment when immediately after Chris Conway gave Dominic’s the lead in the 2nd minute Levins broke clear through the middle of their defence as he raced onto a long ball. Goalkeeper Glen Hoey spotted the danger and advanced out of his box to thwart him.

Dominic’s quickly heeded the warning and four minutes later Oran McMahon increased their lead as he turned and shot to the net inside the penalty box.

Kirby started then to exhibit the range of his skills with a lovely step over before twisting his way in a tight space between two opponents.

The pressure built up on Shamrocks, and Kirby made it thee nil with a magnificent strike with the subtlest of movement that enabled him shift sideways to make the space to shoot.

Lee Shields, a sturdy defender, proved his mettle with a couple of vital pieces of defending, showing composure and deft footwork when left to deal with on his own a couple of sporadic dangerous attacks by Shamrocks.

This allowed Taylor Donnelly to capitalise on the perseverance of Kirby and Cillian Clarke to win the ball on the right wing, and enable him to blast a shot to the net for Dominic’s fourth goal.

Joshua McGuinness went agonisingly close then to scoring for Shamrocks with a blazing shot across the face of the home goal when put in space to the right of goal by Oisin Carron.

The losers’ best spell of attacking play in the half was in these closing minutes, forcing two corners in a row that goalkeeper Glen Hoey was stretched to deal with but they fell further behind in the dying seconds when Robbie Conlon poked the ball over the goal line in a goalmouth scramble.

Five minutes into the second half they suffered further misfortune when they conceded an own goal.

However, they displayed a lot of heart and character to definitely shade the play in the second half. Only a full length save