Well done to our Under 15 footballers who won two of their three games at Féile Peil 2025 in Coachford on Saturday morning. Thirty seconds into the opening contest against the home side Aghabullogue, it didn’t look likely that we would be involved in the business end of proceedings. However despite conceding a goal from the first attack after throw in our lads did not panic. Instead they went on to chip away at the home sides lead raising a couple of white flags.
However when we had a penalty well saved with time almost up, in these 12 minutes a side contests, it looked as though our luck was out. However there was time for one more attack on referee Peter Cotter’s watch and cool as you like Tadhg Harden slotted over a winner.
The second contest against Croke Rovers took after the weather – a somewhat dour contest. With captain Cathal Geaney proving a real handful for the Crokes defence we raced into an early lead… However with the buffer of a couple of scores our lads dropped their intensity alarmingly, such that when the Crokes centre forward converted a long range free, we went from a point up to a point down, with five minutes remaining. One might have expected the Crokes to push on after this inspirational score but instead it had the opposite effect as Alan Murphy, Ethan Roche, Noah O Sullivan and Donncha Hickey all impressed. At the final whistle we had edged ahead again – a second win on the slimmest of margins!
This set up our third game as a semi final of sorts as Whitechurch had also won their opening two games, meaning the winners of this third game would proceed to the final against the Group 3b winners, who were playing at the same time up in Mayfield. Féile is all go! In this derby game Whitechurch raced into an early lead and two goals in a three minute period could have put this contest to bed. However, St. Colmcille’s didn’t give up and with Ayo Osunboyede, Aidan Russell and Sam Dunne all dominating we had plenty possession. However our shooting let us down too many times and we trailed at the break by six, when it could easily been back to three had we taken our points, instead of going for goals.
To be fair to Whitechurch they had some very strong footballers and deservedly finished proceedings in Coachford as Group 3A winners.
However our own lads can feel very satisfied with how they performed – well done to one and all involved. Credit to their management team made up of Oliver Murphy, Niall Gubbins, Ricky Galvin, John Loftus, Sean O Meara and Nick Harden for all of their efforts with this panel of players – it’s great to see the progress they are making. A special shout out again to John Loftus who also doubled up as sponsor to the team for Féile 2025.