Despite having the lions share of possession our 14 DDSL Premier team could not find a way past a dogged Drogheda Boys outfit who defended in depth from start to finish. Seventy minutes play and twenty more of extra time failed to produce a goal before the visitors put away their first five penalties with well placed efforts that Cian Clarke could do nothing about and while we scored four it was not enough to avoid a shock defeat at this early stage of the tournament. Its disappointing that both the 13 & 14 DDSL Premier sides are out of the National Cups in similar circumstances in games that were there for the taking.

On a brighter note our 12 Premier travelled to Drogheda Boys and moved into the next round of the SFAI Danone Cup with a comprehensive 6-2 win while our 13 NDSL Premier team for the second week running found Shanowen Road to their liking when they overcame Blaney Academy 4-0 in the SFAI Troy Cup.

St Pauls Artane defeated our 18 Super team 3-2 in the FAI Youth Cup at the College of Surgeons while the 16 Premier Barry Cup and the 14 NDSL Goodson Cup ties were cancelled.

A fine hat trick by Daniel Bergin in an 8 minute spell in the first half – the last one a sublime chip over the keeper –
was the highlight of our 10A Sunday’s 3-3 draw against Home Farm at the College of Surgeons.

Finding themselves 4-0 down after 20 minutes our 15 Premier DDSL team rallied gamely inspired by a brilliant Jack Ryan free kick but ran out of time to surrender their unbeaten record this season 3-4 to St Francis in an excellent game at Shanowen Road on Saturday and they might have snatched a deserved draw at the death when Lido Lotefa’s header came back off the crossbar.

Our Under 15 DDSL A team advanced in the DDSL Cox Cup 8-0 at the expense of Firhouse Carmel while there were good League wins on Saturday for our 12 Major (5-1 Cabinteely) 12 A (7-0 Mount Merrion) 10 A (4-1 Lourdes Celtic) 11 A (9-0 Crumlin United) and 14 B (3-0 Leixlip United).

With both the DDSL and the NDSL calling all League and League Cup games off this weekend the only two SKB fixtures to survive were at Shanowen Road this morning where our Under 15 Premier side played Drogheda Boys in the SFAI Evans Cup and the SFAI Under 12 Danone Cup tie between our 12 Premier side and Leixlip United.

A goal in each half from Lido Lotefa – the first from a corner on the right and the second a neat finish when the Drogheda goalkeeper spilled a drive from Gavin Kilkenny – was enough to send the 15’s into the next round.

Our 12 Premier scored a facile 8-0 win over Leixlip United to advance in the SFAI Danone Cup where both strikers Ruari Kinsella and Dylan Quinn were in top scoring form Ruari hitting four while Dylan hit three with Eoin Heavy making up the tally.

Under 12 Major player Louis Franzoni was the winner of our latest Aviva Vantage Club Tickets last night.

Louis receives 3 premium level tickets for next Tuesday’s International game at the Aviva Stadium between the Republic of Ireland and the United States.

Saturday morning saw two of our small sided teams get a chance to play on the Shanowen Road pitch.  11 A Saturday maintained their unbeaten start to the season with a fine 4 – 2 win over Raheny United with goals from Eric Marku, Tadgh Walshe, Evan Ferguson and Jamie Mullens who turned in a superb performance throughout.

Our 12 Premier had the same 4 – 2 result against Peamount United in another entertaining game, top marksman Ruairi Kinsella opened the scoring and added another along with Eoin Green with the final goal coming from Ronan Kilkenny.

On Sunday our Premier A side scored their biggest victory of the season a 6 – 0 win over Mountview F C in the AUL Liddy Cup.  Sean Leavy opened the scoring with a fine drive from the edge of the box and that was added to soon after when a Mountview defender turned a Stephen Cantwell cross into his own net, Cantwell went on to score twice himself along with Robbie Pearson and substitute Jordan Cromwell rounded off the scoring.

Our 14 Premier scored an important away League win over St Josephs Boys (2 -0) and our 16 Premier won 5 – 2 away at Cabinteely in the League.  There were also good wins for our 15 A away to Cambridge Boys, 17 Major 1 at home to Leixlip in the League Cup while in the under 12 section our 12 A Saturday had a narrow hard fought win 2 – 1 over Cabinteely in the Hillary Cup but our 12 Major went down in extra time 1 – 0 to Home Farm.

Two of our Premier teams took advantage of the mid term break to travel to England to play two friendlies each.  Our 17 Premier defeated Coventry City 1 – 0  and lost to Chesterfield 4 – 1  while our 15 Premier were defeated 2 – 1 by Sheffield Wednesday and also went down 4 – 2 to Bolton Wanderers.  The score line in these games is irrelevant what is important is the experienced gained by the players against good quality opposition will stand them in good stead both individually and as a team.

 

St Kevins Boys – 2

Collinstown FC – 2

Our Premier A team were the first team to take points off Collinstown F C this season in an entertaining game at Shanowen Road on Sunday afternoon. Collinstown took a first half lead through an Anto McCormack header before going behind soon after to two quickfire goals – a penalty from Peter O’Reilly and a Bobby O’Reilly strike. McCormack was again the Collinstown hero netting the leveler on the hour  before he turned villain by receiving his marching orders for a second yellow card offence.

The numerical disadvantage however only seemed to embolden Collinstown and they continued to push on in search of the winner..

With the clock ticking into injury time Collinstown were unlucky not to win it. Gareth Brogan skillfully chested the ball into the path of Dylan Clarke and the young midfielder hit a rasping 30 yard screamer that bounced back off the crossbar and the spoils were shared.

Our 12 Premier had a narrow 1 – 0 hard fought win over Lourdes Celtic at home on Saturday – Jack Funge scoring the all important goal and our 15 Premier later that day had an equally tough contest against Crumlin United coming out on top with two second half goals from Jack Ryan (penalty) and Leo Tang.

Our 17 Super completed their group stage games in the DDSL 17 Super League with a 4 – 0 win at home to Kilnamanagh Jason Groves leading the way with two excellent strikes.

Our 1st team put last Sundays shock defeat to Dingle United in the FAI Junior Cup behind them on Friday last as they advanced to the next round of the Leinster Junior Cup with a hard fought but fully deserved 3-1 win in wet and windy conditions over Portlaois AFC at Rosleighan Park.

Two first half goals from Ross Harrison – the first after 17 minutes – set the tone but the hosts pulled one back on the stroke of half time to set up a tense second half  in which we would face a very strong wind but Portlaois were unable to draw level and a Bobby O’Reilly goal late on ensured a place in the next round. They will be joined in the next round by our Senior Saturday team who defeated Ballybrack 6-2 in the AUL Complex.

In the SFAI Cups our 16 DDSL Premier and Major along with our 16 NDSL Premier teams advanced with wins over Shelbourne (2-1), Wayside Celtic (2-1)  and Donnacarney Celtic (9-0).

Of our three teams in the SFAI Evans Cup two are left standing – our 15 DDSL Premier and 15 DDSL A who had wins over Castleknock Celtic (9-0) and Kilnamanagh AFC (3-0) respectively but our 15 Brenfer Premier’s long trip to Baileborough resulted in a 3-2 defeat.

Both our 14 DDSL and NDSL Premier teams had facile victories in the SFAI Goodson Cup over St Josephs Boys (M) and Bay Celtic as did both of our Premier  teams in the SFAI Troy Cup over Ardmore Rovers and Ardee Celtic.

In the under 12 SFAI Danone Cup we will have two teams in the next round our 12 DDSL Premier (who did not play this week) and our 12 NDSL Premier who had an easy 6-0 home win over Kells Blackwater but our 12 DDSL Major went out to a last minute goal away to Portmarnock FC