Park’s brave run falls short in Waterford

MUNSTER YOUTHS CUP SEMI-FINAL

Dungarvan United 4 The Park 0

THE Park’s great run in the Munster Youths Cup came to an end in Waterford on Sunday when they went down to Dungarvan United. There was a change of venue for the game as Kilrush Park was snowed under and consequently it was switched to the Waterford IT all weather pitch.

The home side went ahead in the 17th minute from a corner kick with a fine strike from Anthony Lonergan. They doubled their lead in the 33rd minute again from a corner when DJ Melia finding the net from close range.

Now The Park needed to steady the ship before the home side got too much of a stranglehold on the game. They put a few good constructive moves together which yielded nothing and going in 2-0 behind at the interval they were still in with a chance in the game if they could pull one back.

They done their utmost to try and secure a goal to resurrect their chances but they were finding it hard to penetrate a solid home defence. With all their emphasis on trying to get a goal they were caught on the break in the 70th minute and DJ Melia scored a third goal for Dungarvan in tto put them in the driving seat.

They were not finished yet with Dylan Swales scoring their fourth goal in the 90th minute. The loss of a few key players to the Kerry under-17 side weakened The Park side going into this game and consequently they just came up short after a great run in the competition.

Despite losing the game at the penultimate stage of the competition they can feel very proud of their achievements in this competition and they were great ambassadors of their club and the KDL.

All is not lost yet for the Tralee side as they are in the semi-final of the FAI Youths Cup with a mouth-watering clash with St Kevin’s Boys (Dublin) at Christy Leahy Park and now they can focus all their attention on this game which willl be played on the weekend of April 8.