The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Historic day as Kerry teams enjoy LoI wins
MARCH 23 will be remembered as a historic day in the Kerry Schoolboys Girls League as the U-13s and U-15s League of Ireland recorded wins for the first time.
Kerry U-13s had to wait until this week to begin their campaign but the wait was worth it as they recorded a 2-1 away win over Cobh Ramblers. Kerry got off to a great start as Stephen Gannon showed great composure to pounce on a defensive mistake after nine minutes and coolly round the keeper to slot the ball home. Prior to that Oisin Healy was very unlucky in not opening the scoring for Kerry.
The same player then got on the end of a corner to double Kerry’s advantage. Cobh had a couple of efforts but Kerry held out until half time. They did lose James Fisher to injury but all 18 players who were on duty made great contributions during their game time. Paddy McMahon and Ben O’Callaghan missed the match as they are recovering from injuries.
Cobh to their credit kept trying and pulled one back late on but Kerry held on for a great win and three points to kick off their campaign.
Next up for the U-13s is a trip to Garryduff to face Cork City who beat Athlone 5-1. KERRY: Darragh Foley, Fintan O’Sullivan, Niall O’Brien, James Fisher, Finn O’Neill, Jack Slattery, Finn Barrett, Oisin Healy, Stephen Gannon, Andrew Kerins, JJ Olitijan. Subs used: Barry Fitzsimons, Nathan Aherne, Momhammed Abdalla, Bruno Borowzy, Jake Hoare and Immanuel Manu.
KERRY’S U-15s enjoyed a great day at home to Cobh Ramblers with Cianan Cooney the hero hitting all his sides goals in a 4-2 win. Kerry had the best of the opening encounters and took the lead in the 23rd minute when Cooney picked up a pass inside the box and finished coolly into the bottom corner. Liam Carmody did make one very good save to keep Kerry ahead but he was the quitter of the keepers.
The same player then doubled Kerry’s lead in the 28th minute with a perfect free kick from just outside the box. However Cobh did pull one back 4 minutes later when the home defence failed to clear a rare visitors attack and David Equaibor scrambled the ball home to leave Kerry 2-1 up at the break.
Any home of a Cobh comeback was ended when Cooney completed his hat-trick. He was firstly denied by a great save by the goalkeeper but from the resulting cross by Oisin Breen Cooney headed home. And he wrapped up the Kerry scoring and the Kerry win after being set up by the excellent Ronan Teehan. Cobh did pull one back very late on but it was only a consolation as Kerry took the win.
Next up Kerry will be at home this Saturday when the welcome Cork City to Mounthawk Park for a 2pm kick-off. Cork put six without reply past Athlone at the weekend. KERRY: Liam Carmody, Samuel Aladesnaui, Andy Rogers, Ajay Behan, Oisin Woulfe, Lorcan Murphy, Oisin Collins, Sean Hill, Roco Rujevcan, Ronan Teehan, Cianan Cooney, Emmett Rigter, Cillian Murphy, Darragh O’Grady, Tom Whittleton, Daire O’Shea, Sean O’Connell, Colin Doody, Craig McInnnes.