U10 Premier: Bellurgan United 0 – 2 Rock Celtic

 

Two clinical second half finishes from Evan McEntaggert gave the Seasiders maximum points in this important mid week game against a Bellurgan side who have been on a great run of form recently. Despite the difficult pitch conditions Rock created a number of good goal scoring chances during the first half, with Mark Gallagher, Mark Leavy and Fiachra O’Hanlon all going close with fine efforts. The first half saw some nice passing exchanges and skill involving Rock’s Dara Quinn and Mark Gallagher on the left side with O’Hanlon and Leavy doing likewise out on the right. A perfectly delivered corner from Bellurgan’s Callum created the only real goal scoring opportunity for the home side during the first half. Josh Hanna had another fine game for the Seasiders patrolling the central midfield area and dropping deep at even the first sniff of danger to offer support to the solid defensive trio of Cillian Duffy, Jamie Callan and Adam Hoban. With the game scoreless at the half way mark, Rock made a number of changes introducing Sennan Carroll and Steve Kamtchou for Leavy and Callan, with Eoin Byrne taking over defensive duties from Adam Hoban. Right from the whistle the Rock lads began to push forward with Duffy and Gallagher (now switched to centre of defence) making a number of fast breaks from defence. Defender Byrne in particular put in a strong performance during the second half with some great tackles and interceptions. Rock keeper Jack Donohoe showed great awareness coming off his line on several occasions to clear the danger when Bellurgan got in behind the Rock defence. With just over 15 minutes remaining and the game still in the balance, Rock made their final substitution sending McEnteggart up front on his league debut for the U10 team. A long clearance from Donohoe caused problems for Bellurgan’s defence with McEntaggert slipping in behind them to pick up the loose ball and go 1 v 1 with the keeper. A nice right footed shot into the back of the net. 1-0 to the Rock! Apart from an excellent free kick by Bellurgan danger man Dillon Quinn, the remaining 10 minutes of the game was largely one way traffic for the Seasiders, with Hanna very unfortunate to hit the woodwork after a superb right footed effort and O’Hanlon also close to scoring following a great individual run. The Seasider’s second goal eventually came after a nice ball played through to McEntaggert who shrugged off the Bellurgan defenders with ease before slotting the ball into the bottom corner. Overall a great team performance and a well deserved away win for this impressive young Rock side.    

 

[Photo: Fiachra O’Hanlon was close to scoring with this fine effort in the first half]

 

U13 Premier: Glenmuir Celtic 1 – 7 Rock Celtic

 

 

Rock continued their superb form with a emphatic 7-1 win over 3rd place Glenmuir . Playing against a gale in the first half rock played their best football of the season with Liam O’ Callaghan pulling all the strings in midfield allowing Aidan Curtin, Oisin Meegan, Oisin Murtagh to venture forward in support of the hard working forwards of Alex McCarthy and Oisin Geogaghan. The first goal came after great play down the right by O’ Callaghan and Meegan ended with the ball being switched to Murtagh for a cool finish to add to his already impressive tally for the season. Rock added more from the brilliant Curtin and Meegan with Glenmuir having no answer to Rock’s slick play with both full backs Odhran Duffy and Liam McDonnell joining in to link up play, while the ever improving Mark Hanna and the cool Conor Soraghon snuffed out anything that the opposition had to create.
Glenmuir did get a goal before the break when the wind caught a long ball and sent it towards the Rock goal and was coolly finished by their striker. The score was 3-1 at half time. The second half saw Rock mentors ring the changes , but this didn’t stem the flow as Rock became more dominant with the wind on their backs. Aidan Curtin got the fourth with another thunder bolt after another mazy run from O’Callaghan. Johnaton Kieran’s capped a fine individual performance with goal number 5 when  he finished brilliantly after good work from Niall Smyth and Conor Neary to set up the chance. Patrick Craven then got in on the act when he latched on to a great ball by Jack Barron to finish superbly to the corner of the net, to bring the biggest cheer of the day for a popular player. Leading scorer Oisin Murtagh rounded of the scoring with another rasper to bring the match to a close. This was once again another brilliant team performance under very bad conditions.