U-17s narrowly beaten by Cork City

Kerry DL 2 Cork City 3

KERRY faced a stern test at Mounthawk Park on Sunday against one of the top seeds in their division Cork City who were searching for their first win of the new season.

It turned out to be a very competitive game with Kerry in with a shout until the concluding stages of the game.

The visitors were the dominant side in the first half playing a free flowing passing game and given the possession they enjoyed and the scoring chances they created they should have established a commanding lead by the interval.

However, Kerry kept their game together at the back defended deep and made their opponents work hard to create scoring chances.

Cork’s Ricardo Dinanga was a thorn in the side of the Kerry defence with his agility and fancy footwork hard to manage.

He had a couple of chances but was denied by superb tackles from Owen Benson and Dylan Quirke.

Bad luck struck for Kerry in the 23rd minute after a period of sustained pressure unfortunately in an attempt to clear the ball James Rusk put it past his own goalkeeper.

However Kerry responded well to this setback and Junior Ankomah executed a long clearane out of defence finding John Carmody who raced past two defenders and tucked away his shot from close range leaving the sides level after half an hour.

Kerry goalie Alex O’Connor was then called into action and he made two good saves to deny Joshue Lombardi and Matthew O’Reilly.

The sides went in level 1-1 at the interval.

Kerry twarted a couple of early second half chance by Cork and they continued to keep a tight ship in front of goals.

Kerry boss Darren Aherne made two changes after this with Jr Tsikato replacing Padraig McCannon and Jordan Barry coming on for Boki Nikic.

Howver Cork went ahead in the 63rd minute after a quick counter attack with a fine strike from Jamie O’Sullivan.

However Kerry showed steely determination to claw their way back into the game again and they secured an equaliser in the 73rd minute.

Jordan Barry took advantage of a parry from Cork goalie Adam Cantwell who failed to hold a high ball and Barry scored from close range to throw the game wide open again.

As the game entered the final minutes it appeared a share of the spoils would be the outcome but there was a late sting in the tale from the Corkonians with Jamie O’Sullivan scoring a late goal with a sweet shot from out on the wing.

While Kerry will be disappoint- ed at losing the game they have plenty of positives to take from their performance.

Next Sunday they have another home tie against Wexford and the kick off at Mounthawk Park is at 2pm.

KERRY: Alex O’Connor, Dylan Quirke, James Rusk, Liam Collins, Padraig McCannon, John Carmody, Owen Benson, Junior Ankomah, Sebastian Vasiu, Boki Nikic, David Rogers. Subs: JR Tshikato, Jordan Barry,

CORK City: Adam Cantwell, Jamie O’Sullivan, Joshua Honohan, Joshua Hudner, Jake O’Brien, Colin Hanifin, Oran Daly, Adam Hunt, Ricardo Dinanga, Matthew O’Reilly, Joshua Lombardi. Subs: Darragh O’Sullivan Connell, Evison Shikaki Rramini, Alex Minihane

REFEREE: Derek O’Shea

SPEAKING after the game the manager of the Kerry U17 manager Darren Aherne said: “I am very proud of the squads display today, even though going down to a late winner. I feel that this result which is the closest we have been to Cork in my three years involved, shows the progress that is being made at Airtricity level.

“Defensively well organised and posing a threat up front allied to a hard work ethic will hopefully see these lads have a good year. If we can eliminate unforced errors from our game then a win can’t be far away.

“Thanks to all that made their way to Mounthawk Park to support the lads. Wexford next weekend at home, come along and support the team.”