CPN U-16 Footballers produced their strongest performance of the year, when it mattered most, in a sun drenched Pairc Liam Uí Ír on Thursday evening. The Blues started positively scoring 2 points in the first ten minutes to lead the ‘yellas’ 0-2 to 0-0. However Clonduff started to get a foothold in the contest and took a couple of great scores from dead ball situations to level matters. It was the men from Hilltown who were playing the better football at this stage until Harry Houlihan’s long range effort in the 18th minute found its way to the back of the Clonduff net, a goal which would cap a fantastic individual performance from Harry on the night. CPN carried that momentum on and were dominant in all areas of the field for the next 10 minutes but were a little wasteful in the final third. Clonduff converted two well worked points to CPN’s one, leaving the half time score CPN 1-3 Clonduff 0-4.
With the rain coming down hard at the start of the second half, the players could have been forgiven for letting the standard of football drop, but this was not to be the case. CPN got off to a flier in the second half with an early goal coming in the form of the lively James Maginn after a well worked move was rounded off with a smart finish. At this point there only looked to be one winner with the Blues moving the ball long and fast ,however Clonduff stuck to their task well and fired over three points in quick succession from the accurate Boden to leave four points between the teams. The game was turned on its head after a penalty was awarded to Clonduff with John Boden again making no mistake from the conversion.
With ten minutes left, there was little between the teams but the character of the ‘point side could not be questioned. The middle eight started to turn the screw, winning six kick outs in a row, in turn setting up four unanswered scores, two of which came from the boot of Sean McCartan, whose impact was crucial when coming on as a second half substitute. The final score was CPN 2-10 Clonduff 1-8. CPN were awarded their first 2 points of the group with a deserved 5 point win that sets them in good stead in what is a very difficult group.
Each member of the squad played a vital role in the win, with James Maginn and Harry Houlihan playing well up front, Peter Sweeney, Jamie Lynch and Shea Madden strong throughout at the back and Ruairi McCormack with a standout performance excelling in the middle of the field.
Scorers: Harry Houlihan 1-2, Ruairi McCormack 0-4, James Maginn 1-0, Sean McCartan 0-2, Eoghan Byrne 0-1, Kohree Hourican 0-1.
