Victory for U13's against Corinthians

O’ Brien On The Double As United March OnU13 Roy Keane Premier League: Blarney United 2 Corinthians 1Today we played Corinthians and both teams were determined to maintain their 100% league record to date.Blarney got off to the better start with Kelvin O Donoghue and Sean Keane getting on top in central midfield this helped their team to settle quicker.Blarney were always a threat down the right side of the pitch with Cian Connolly and Jack O Keefe linking up well and after 14 minutes this combination led to Blarney taking the lead.Cian found Jack with a clever pass which caught out the Corinthians defender Jack still had a lot of work to do and he made a brilliant run on the by-line rounding two Corinthians players and sending in a peach of a cross to find Ronan O Brien who lost his marker to slot in the first goal of the match.Blarney didn’t rest on their laurels and again took the game to Corinthians playing the better football and were unlucky a few minutes later not to go two up when Kelvin O Donoghue brilliantly got his head on a good cross only for the Corinthians goalkeeper to clear it off the line when it looked like it was going in.Corinthians were trying hard to get into the game but some great defending from both Blarney full backs Cian Connolly and Liam O Connor prevented them from creating anything to trouble the Blarney keeper.With four minutes to go to half time Blarney were pressing forward when Corinthians intercepted and sent a long ball over the top for the Corinthians striker to run onto, he rounded Eli Linehan the Blarney keeper and with the goal at his mercy a fantastic last ditch tackle by the Blarney Captain Andrew Mc Carthy who came out of nowhere prevented Corinthians equalising.Blarney was deservedly 1-0 to the good at half time.The start of the second half saw Corinthians pressing forward for an equaliser but the Blarney defence were very strong and were preventing any clear shot at goal.With 10 minutes gone in the second half Blarney gave away a silly free kick just outside the right hand side of the box. A great delivery into the box from the free kick gave our defenders no chance and the Corintians centre half got in a great header to make it 1-1.This gave Corinthians belief that they could go on and win it and they started to get on top in the midfield area and pushing for a winner.Blarney countered this by switching Ronan O Brien in from the left to a more central striker’s position and brining on Michael O Mahony for John Lehane who had gallantly ran himself into the ground again for his team today.This helped Blarney gain control of the game once more and with eighteen minutes gone a good ball played out of defence from Cian Connolly found Michael O Mahony in the middle of midfield and he switched it out to Kelvin on the left who fed a great ball into Ronan O Brien on the edge of the box.Ronan let fly with that powerful left foot of his and what a finish to make it 2-1 to Blarney.The next 12 plus minutes Blarney grew in confidence with Sean Keane breaking down the Corinthians midfield and anything that got through him the defence stood strong to snuff out anything that came their way.It finished 2-1 to the delight of the many Blarney United supporters who turned out the watch a great game of football from both sides.Best for Blarney on the day were Cian Connolly, Liam O Connor & Ronan O Brien.On behalf of the players and Management team thank you for all the support today it was much appreciated.Well done to the squad of players they prepared very well for this game over the Christmas and got their just reward!!!

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