There were two very important SFAI Cup games decided over the weekend with our 13 Premier and 15 Premier recording great wins in the SFAI Troy Cup and Evans Cup over Belvedere F C and Cherry Orchard respectively.

On Saturday afternoon the Clontarf all weather pitch staged a repeat of last season’s SFAI Cup game between the same two teams and the result was the same with SKB putting in a splendid all round team performance to remove one of their main opponents Belvedere F C from this year’s competition with goals in either half from Ryan Cassidy and a powerful header from Ray O’Sullivan from a corner. Aisling Annacotty will provide the opposition in the next round.

Last season both SKB and Cherry Orchard met in the semi final of the SFAI under 14 Cup and yesterday at Shanowen Road these teams met again in the SFAI Evans Cup in what turned out to be a typical tight, tense cup affair with nothing between the teams on the day. Cherry Orchard took the lead in the first half with a close range header from their Captain following a free kick, the equalizer came from a deep cross by Shane Stokes which decieved the Cherry Orchard goalkeeper and seemed to drop straight into the net although Mikey Cregan claimed to have got a touch on the line. Numerous chances to win the game were spurned in the second half and the Cherry Orchard goalkeeper produced two excellent saves to keep the score level. Extra time didn’t produce a winner but with Daniel Brennan saving Cherry Orchard’s first penalty the five excellently taken SKB penalties by Thomas Byrne, Shane Stokes, Cian McGarry, Ryan Graydon and Adam Doyle saw the home side home 5-3 and a place in the next round secured.

Our 12 Major were unable to reproduce their SFAI Danone Cup heroics when they went out in the quarter final of the DDSL Ryan Cup 2-4 away to Mount Merrion F C.

Republic of Ireland 1 Austria 1

Ex SKB players Anto Dolan, Anto Breslin and Shane Elworthy (as a defender) added to their International tally of caps when they appeared in Ireland’s second game of the week against Austria yesterday in Gannon Park, Malahide. Again in this game which was played in front of Irish International manager Martin O’Neill Austria took the lead but the equalizer on this occassion came courtesy of a brilliant strike from Anto Dolan.

Republic of Ireland 2 Austria 1

Five St Kevin’s Boys players were involved in the Republic of Ireland squad for last night’s friendly against Austria in Dalymount Park both sides are looking towards the elite qualifying round of the UEFA U17 Championship later this month and it was a highly competitive game and Ireland will have taken a lot from the performance as well as the result.

However Austria were in superb form in the first half and strung together long periods of possession and they eventually found a way past the well-marshalled Irish defence in the 25th minute when Bernhard Fila cut the ball back and Sinan Yilmaz fired home superbly on the turn.

Ireland had to weather the storm but they were better after the break and levelled in the 61st minute when Nottingham Forest striker McDonagh exploited a gap in the Austrian defence and fired home emphatically from the edge of the box.

David Gugganig was then penalised for a foul on Conor Masterson in the Austrian penalty area in the 81st minute and captain Georgie Poynton stepped up to fire home from the spot.

Defender Benjamin Kaufmann had a chance to level in the 86th minute with an excellent low shot from distance but it was well saved by Irish keeper Evan Moran.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Evan Moran, Robin Walsh, Anto Breslin, Danny Kane, Robert McCourt, Kyron Farrell, Shane Elworthy, Georgie Poynton, Jerry McDonagh, Tom Holland, Steven Kinsella. Subs: Anto Dolan for Farrell 59 mins, Adam McDonnell for Holland 59, Khius Metz for McDonagh 75, Conor Masterson for Kinsella 80, Stephen Best for McCourt 90.

AUSTRIA: Paul Gartler, Stefan Posch, Marco Krainz, Benjamin Kaufmann, Albin Gashi, Simon Pirkl, Sinan Yilmaz, Bernhard Fila, Dominik Prokop, Fabian Gmeiner, David Gugganig. Subs: Philipp Seidl for Fila 46, Rami Tekir
for Prokop 46, Christopher Cvetko for Krainz 49, Konrad Laimer for Pirkl 49, Marco Hodl for Yilmaz 53, Patrick Hasenhutttl for Gmeiner 53.

REFEREE: Simon Rogers (Irl)

NEXT FIXTURE

Thursday, March 6
Republic of Ireland U17 v Austria
Gannon Park, Malahide (2.00pm)

Congratulations to ex SKB players: Anto Dolan now with Fulham and Jack Byrne Manchester City who have received nominations for Player Of The Year at their respective age groups at the 24th Annual FAI ‘3’ International Football Awards which will take place on Sunday 2nd March and will be televised live.

Our 18 Super team was not flattered by their 6-0 FAI Youth Cup win yesterday over Aungier Celtic at McKelvey’s all weather pitch in Charlestown. They created chances right from the start but it took until the 30th minute for them to take the lead with a header from Keith Kelly following a well worked short corner move on the left, Dylan Moloney quickly added a second before half time. The Aungier Celtic goalkeeper made a string of superb saves in the second half to keep the score respectable until Jason Caffrey drilled home a free kick from 25 yds with fifteen minutes to go. After this the fight went out of the visitors and in the last 6 minutes 3 further goals were added from Under 17 player Malike Berrougubi – a close range effort, a superb strike from 30 yards from Paul McMahon and a header from Llyod Buckley finished off the scoring. Carrigaline from Cork are the visitors in the last 16.

Our 12 Majors run in the SFAI Danone Cup ended at the 4th hurdle on Saturday when they lost 7-2 to Premier side Crumlin United in Pearse Park. Facing the gale in the first half they were constantly on the back foot and were 4-0 down at half time- they did pull two goals back through Christian Isichei and Taylor Dolan but the task was beyond them, but they have had a great run in the National Cup over the past four weeks and can be proud of their performances.

All other games were off.

On a weekend where once again inclement weather was the dominant factor our 12 Major played in the SFAI Danone Cup for the third week running having already played Esker Celtic and Kilnamanagh FC away they now faced DDSL 12 Premier side Belvedere F C who had beaten our own 12 Premier team in a League tie a couple of weeks ago. Belvedere as expected dominated this game from the start but failed to carve out any clear cut chances and were made to pay when from a rare break forward Christian Isichei stabbed a ball home at the second attempt to put the home side 1 up – a lead they held right up to eight minutes from time when eventually the non stop pressure of the visitors was rewarded when one of their most impressive performers Troy Parrott equalized. It looked as if a second Belvedere goal was only a matter of time but with SKB Goalkeeper Daniel Jinadu in fine form the game moved into extra time. Again in the extra time the home side were forced to defend non stop but in the final minute of the second period of extra time Dara Oke scored what looked to be the goal that would bring heartache to the home side following their valiant defensive display however with Belvedere sensing that they had the game won the home side threw everyone forward from the kick off and live wire winger Taylor Dolan forced a free kick on the edge of the 18 yard line right on the end line which he himself took and curled an exquisite shot into the top corner at the near post to bring the game to penalties. Having got this far the home side were not going to be denied and they cooly dispatched 4 of their 5 penalties through Scott Pierce, Erick Davis, Christian Isichei and Taylor Dolan while Belvedere missed their first penalty and Goalkeeper Daniel Jinadu saved their second. This result sees our 12 Major moving on to the fourth round where they will take on Crumlin United away next Saturday.

On Sunday our 16 Premier emphasised their superiority over local League rivals Home Farm F C with a 4-0 win in the SFAI Barry Cup.

Ex SKB Schoolboy player Stephen Cantwell who re-signed for the Club before Christmas scored two goals as our 1st team came from behind to score a much needed league win away (2-1) to Ballymun United, hopefully this win will result in a gradual climb away from the bottom of the league table in the coming weeks.

In the only other two games played at the weekend our 11A Sunday drew 2-2 away to Belvedere and our 10.3 Saturday won 2-1 away at HHFC.