Information on Girl’s football
Both of our senior teams are in action this coming week in the third round of the Leinster Junior Cup.
On Friday night at 7-45pm our Senior Saturday team play Ringsend Rovers in the Ringsend Astro Park while on Sunday at Shanowen Road our Premier A team take on CIE Ranch at 2pm.
All support welcome.
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.
Luke Nolan from our Under 15 Premier team has been selected in the Irish Under 15 squad for two games this week against Poland.
The first is tomorrow Poland v Republic of Ireland, Mniow Stadium (2.30pm) with the second game on Thursday Poland v Republic of Ireland, Strawczyn Stadium (12.00pm).
Congratulations and good luck Luke.
Jack Byrne ex SKB now of Manchester City retains his place in the Irish Under 21 squad for two games later this month in Marbella against Russia and the USA.
Former SKB players Eoghan Stokes and Sean Heaney are in the Irish International Under 19 squad for three Euro qualifying games this week against Malta on 13/11 in the RSC in Waterford, Gibraltar 15/11 in Ferrycarrig Park Wexford and Switzerland on 18/11 in the RSC in Waterford.
While earlier this month Ross Treacy and Darragh Leahy of our 17 Super team along with team mates from SKB last season Robbie McCourt now of West Bromwich Albion and Trevor Clarke now of Middlesboro helped Ireland qualify for the elite stages of the Under 17 Euro Championships.
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
Our Bumper €4,000 Klotto Jackpot Was Won Last Night By Michael Keogh Of Our Under 14.3 Team – Congratulations To Michael And His Family!!
Dylan Smith From Our Under 9.4 Sat Team Was The Winner Of Our Vantage Club Ticket Draw For Three Premium Seats At This Year’s Fai Ford Cup Final On Sunday Next At The Aviva Stadium Where St Patricks Athletic Meet Derry City In The Men’s Fai Cup Final And Raheny United Play Ucd Waves In The Ladies Cup Final Congratulations To Dylan And His Family!!
Some of our under 12’s photographed prior to their assessment day at the FAI Emerging Talent programme.
Names left to right are: Morgan Griffin, Ruairi Kinsella, Eoin Green, Len O’Sullivan and Gavin O’Brien.
Last week saw 5 ex-SKB players on duty for various Irish international teams with Jeff Hendrick and Robert Brady with the Senior team in the European Championships, Jack Byrne with the Under 21’s against Finland and Eoghan Stokes and Sean Heeney and with the Under 19’s in Sweden.
Congratulations to first team player Paddy Brophy on being named captain of this seasons AUL Oscar Traynor Cup squad as they seek to retain the trophy – also to Paddy Ellis who has been named in the squad for the first team.
Having suffered a 1-0 defeat to Shamrock Rovers in their opening League game our 14 Premier team under the new management of Joe Quinn, Willie Burke and Gareth McMullen were faced with a tougher challenge on Saturday at Shanowen Road when they faced main League rivals Belvedere F C in a game that had a special edge to it with Belvedere having a number of ex SKB players in their squad.
Right from the start the home side contested every ball and were sharper and stronger throughout the pitch and Daniel Madaghjian put them ahead after twenty minutes when he brilliantly side footed home a free kick from the left and he added his second just before half time from close range following good work down the right by Jack Kelly. Ryan Cassidy scored a third early in the second half and a couple more could have been added to the scoreline before Jason Noone locked down a Cian Clarke clearance to score a consolation goal late on for Belvedere. This was an important win confidence wise and they will be serious contenders for all honours this season.
Also on Saturday our 15 Premier started the Club’s defence of the DDSL Conway Cup with a 3-1 away win over Crumlin United with goals from Luke Nolan, Jake Walker and a penalty from Jack Ryan.
On Sunday our 16 Premier started the Club’s defence of the DDSL McGrath Cup with an emphatic 5-0 away win to St Josephs Boys despite never clicking into top gear. Thomas Byrne opened the scoring after ten minutes with a fine angled drive, Mikey Cregan tapped home the second following good work by Shane Stokes on the left and Stokes added a third before half time. Further goals in the second half from Richie English and Adam Doyle completed the scoring.
In the Leinster Youth Cup our 17 and 18 Super teams progressed but our 17 Major lost on penalties following a 2-2 draw away to Ballymun United.
This year’s FAI Junior Cup will move on without SKB’s participation following a surprising 3-2 home defeat by Dingle United. 2 down inside fifteen minutes they went a further goal behind early in the second half and the nearest they came to reducing the deficit was when Ciaran Nolan struck the post with a fine strike but Robbie Pearson’s follow up was saved. Despite rallying with goals from Ross Harrison and Stephen Cantwell they couldn’t add a third in what was a very disappointing performance.
After the weekend just passed all of our teams are now up and running and Shanowen hosted it’s first games of the season over the weekend with three impressive displays from our 15 Premier, 13.5 and 16 Premier teams who all recorded good wins over Kilnamanagh 8-0, Ballybrack Boys 10-1 and Shamrock Rovers 3-1 respectively.
Our 17 Super, 16 Major and Senior Saturday sides also recorded impressive victories over Athlone Town, Drogheda Boys and Kilbarrack united.
Tomorrow night September 16th our AUL Premier A team resume their League fixtures with a tough away game against O’Devanney Dunard in the AUL Complex at 7.30pm.
Best of luck to Daragh Leahy and Ross Treacy of our 17 Super squad who this week join up with the Irish International Under 17 squad where they will be joined by former SKB team mates Trevor Clarke of Middlesboro and Robbie Mc Court from West Bromwich Albion. Tom Mohan’s side will kick-off their campaign at home to Gibraltar in Athlone next Monday, September 22 (7.30pm), then face the Faroe Islands in Galway two days later before wrapping up the group against Scotland in Longford on Saturday week.
After all the hard work done during July and August last weekend saw most of our teams get their season up and running with some highly impressive performances right throughout the age groups and we hope when things settle down over the next few weeks that all of our teams will have a successful season.
Our 14’s and 16’s were involved in the TORNEIG ELIT CEM 2014 which was held in A L’Estadi Nou Gongost De Manresa just outside Barcelona. Both of our teams were seeded 3 in the initial 4 team groups with the top seeds in the 16’s category being Real Madrid, Sevilla F C, RCD Espanyol, Malaga C F, Real Betis, RCD Deportivo La Coruna, CF Villareal and Athletico Madrid while the 14’s top seeded teams were Athletico Madrid, Sevilla F C, RCD Espanyol, Malaga C F, Real Betis, RCD Deportivo La Coruna and CF Villarea.
In the group games the 16’s defeated FC Girona who were the second seeds 2-1 and Manresa F C 6-0 but lost 3-0 to a superior Espanyol side but did enough in their first two games to qualify for the last 16 where they met Villareal – this game ended scoreless but we lost the penalty shoot out 3-2 (3 pens not 5) which saw us go out. Just an indication of how fine the margins were Villareal drew their quarter final 0-0 against Real Betis and went through to the semis 2-1 on pens they eventually qualified for the final and played the only other team to defeat SKB – Espanyol, Espanyol won the final 4-1. In our final game to decide 9th – 12th placings we defeated Manresa F C 2-0.
In the under 14 section SKB had group wins over Manresa F C and AEC Manlleu but lost narrowly to Villareal 1-0 which saw them reach the last 16 but found Malaga CF too strong losing 2-0, in their final game to decide 9th – 12th placings they beat Manresa CE 2-0.
The Club were awarded the Tournaments Fair Play Trophy at the presentation ceremony at the end of the Tournament on Sunday night.
The standard displayed by the top seeded teams technically, tactically and physically was far in advance of what our players are used to meeting in this Country and shows the gap that exists at the top level in each country but the experience gained by the players should ensure that they work harder individually and as a group at their game to narrow the gap.
Our thanks to Fernando Herrero of Novajika Sports for all his help in securing our participation in this tournament and for being on hand throughout the weekend as our guide and interpreter.
Following on from Paddy Brophy playing last week for the Irish Amateur team this week saw Jack Byrne (Man City) make his competitive debut for the Irish 21’s against Germany and his former SKB team mate Eoghan Stokes (Leeds United) scored the winner for the Irish under 19’s against Holland.
