U13 hurlers finish season in style

Wounded pride can be a great motivator. Wounded twice.. even more so.
Last May Castleknock destroyed us by a cricket score when previously there had never been more than a puck of a ball between these two teams. Pride wounded.
I arrived at training last Tuesday expecting\hoping for a low turnout, Mel was caught in work and Ronan was busy preparing for Junior hurling final ( which they won !) .

I was on my own....18 turned up..!! 18 from 22 on a cold,windy,damp dark evening in November. Good commitment but they were giddy as geese and after a fairly poor practice match, I called the lads in and told them that if they played like that they would be well beaten again on Saturday by Castleknock.....wounded pride..again.
Castleknock started brightly with a goal and when Simon Owens started hobbling holding his hamstring.. things started to look ominious. We were forced to push Simon to full forward and reposition Hugh Murray to centre back. Funny how clouds do have silver linings, with Hugh Murray cleaning up at  half back, suddenly most of the play was inside the Castleknock 40m line, Simon scored a goal, Sam got another, he's making a habit of this lately, Thomas Colclough got in on the act and Paul Ryan added a fourth. Simon and Thomas added a point each. Half time 4-2 to 1-2 and things looked very hopeful.

However Castleknock now had the breeze and if they started the first half brightly, they exploded into life after the restart and had 2-2 scored within 10 mins and the margin was down to 1 point. Castleknocks no 5, young Mr Coffey and Colm, a classy hurler, causing us all sorts of problems.
But lately, this Syls team have become a bit mean and stubborn, and slowly they steadied the ship. Eamonn McLoughney (u11) in particular putting in a huge effort, Eoin Fitz found his second wind, Colly found his range on frees (2points) and Simon found the net again twice. 9 points restored and 10 mins to go.
As Castleknock continued to press hard, Simon was postioned on the edge of our square, accompanied by Eamonn and Gavin, and this confined Castleknock to a few points, which were well taken, but in the end not enough to overhaul
After the final whistle today I walked back over to the assembled team to be met by a chorus of "...told you we'd win.."
I held my hands up in surrender..!!
Final score Syls 7-4 Castleknock 4-8
Pride restored.
This was no easy victory, Castleknock are a serious hurling outfit and Damian Whelan always has his team well drilled, but with nearly a full squad  available we always felt we had a chance. We gave all five subs a good run and it's a sign of an improving squad that substitutions didn't seem to weaken us. Paudie White was super again today, he's really found his feet on the half line, size doesn't matter !!, the Colclough twins have added great hurling skill and pedigree to the team, Killian is solid in goals with consistent puckouts, but is getting some outfield hurling with the u14s and u15s on occasions..! Jake was badly missed at corner back, but Dylan McEvoy deputised competently. Josh, Andrew, Karl, Gavin all contributed with their usual strong performance. The 3 Eoins, McEr,Fitzer,Keno worked non-stop on the half forward line. Shane and Sean Foley ( recovering from flu) came off the bench and held their line. Paddy missed his first game of the season through injury but was there all the same.
All in all, a great team performance, great heart and character, a nice way to finish up the season.
We'll do a few more training sessions, have our Christmas party (Probably Tuesday 1st December), and take a good break until Feb2010
Team
GP: Killan Haverty
Back: Gavin Mulligan,Karl Archbold,Dylan McEvoy,Paudie White, Hugh Murray, Andrew cunningham,Eamonn McLoughney
Mid: Josh Nolan, Thomas Colclough (1-1)
Forwards: Eoin McCarthy, Eoin Kennedy, Eoin Fitzsimons, Simon Owens(4-1), Colm Boran(0-2f), Sam Horan (1-0), Paul Ryan (1-0), Daniel Colclough, Sean Foley, Shane Desmond