The Avondhu

Kilworth Celtic FC road trip

The U11s were significant in both number and noise at the first International match to be held in Cork for 15 years. Lead by coaches Colum Sisk, Mike Long, Ado Kearney and Aidan Roche, it was always going to be a good turnout. The chance to see quality football played on our home turf was simply too good a chance to pass up, and so the Kilworth Kommandoes travelled en masse to the city.

Not to be outdone, we had U9s, U14s and more in the mix. In all, over 40 Kilworth Celtic members made their presence felt on the terraces and in the stands. The recent heavy rain seemed like a thing of the past as the contingent arrived and made their way to the St Anne’s end in glorious sunshine. Colum Sisk claimed repeatedly that he had arranged the good weather after a lengthy consultation process with Cork City FC owner Dermot Usher, who was understandably impressed with the soothsaying talents of the Kilworth coach. It is understood that Colum will receive a season ticket if he can replicate the weather on a required matchday basis.

It came to pass that 6048 fans had packed into Turner’s Cross, but the amount of noise felt like twice that many. The atmosphere was electric in the hour leading up to kick-off. The St Anne’s End was filling up rapidly, with many young fans down at pitchside to get a closer look at the Iceland ‘keepers being put through their paces immediately in front of the stand. Unfortunately, the Irish squad were warming up at the other end, but that didn’t stop the kids from working on chants that would come in very useful during the match itself. The size of the Iceland players led the lads to believe they must come from the land of the giants. They were massive. Undeterred, the youngsters waved Irish flags and gave the visitors the warmest of Cork welcomes.

The teams duly made their way to the halfway line for the National Anthems. Someone remarked that Icelandic anthem sounded like something you would hear from an icecream van, which seemed quite fitting really.

The referee blew the whistle, and the match was on! In only the second minute, Ollie O'Neill made a decent burst down the flank as Ireland immediately went on the attack. It spun just over the sideline before he could get a cross in, to the ooohs of the home crowd. The Derry attacker then managed to get a shot away at pace after the throw in that is held by the goalkeeper Adam Ingi Beneditksson. A great start for the Irishmen!

The match began to settle into a pattern of attack, and counter-attack, with both sides surging forward with some excellent periods of play. It looked as if Ireland was holding the upper hand in the early exchanges, then Kristall Mani Ingason suddenly popped up and scored into the top left corner of the net. It looked to the home crowd as if the Irish defence had a momentary lapse that allowed Ingason to get his shot away unchallenged.

It was a scant 9 minutes later that Iceland thought they had doubled their lead as Ingasson blasted the ball past the Irish keeper Tiernan Brooks that was thankfully called offside in the build-up. The crowd breathed a collective sigh of relief, and the Kilworth lads were peeking through their hands to will the offside flag to be raised.

Ireland immediately went on the counter-offensive in an effort to regain parity. Ireland deservedly got themselves back on level terms less than 60 seconds later, when Andy Moran cleverly found a welltimed run by Tom Cannon who showed great composure to finish low across goal into the bottom corner. 1-1, and only 23 minutes on the clock! What a cracking goal it was. The crowd went wild, and the Kilworth chant of “The only good thing about Iceland is the price of the frozen peas” began to do the rounds.

The wheels looked like they about to come off when Festy Ebosele and the last Iceland defender Olafur Gudmundsson collided as Ebosele was surging towards goal, and both went to ground. The Irish striker felt aggrieved at not being awarded a foul, and remonstrated vociferously with the referee. Yellow card. Ebosele continued his protestation - second yellow, red, off! It all happened in the space of ten seconds, and Ireland was suddenly reduced to ten men for the remaining 60 minutes of the match.

Half-time gave the Ireland manager a chance to reset the team’s structure, and take stock. And at the resumption of play, it was indeed the Irish team who carried more threat and created more chances, with the trio of Moran, Hodge and Cannon terrorising the Iceland defensive formation.

At one stage it looked like Ireland had a rugby side on the hallowed Turner’s Cross grass, as the Irish team threatened to open up the Icelandic defence like a can of rollmops with attack after attack. It was as delicious to watch as a piping hot Hillbillies’ breast in a bun, for it was indeed the heat of the Irish attackers that caused the Icelanders to melt in the 82nd minute, when Shamrock Rovers’ Johnny Kenny unleashed a thunderbolt that passed through several defenders, then keeper, and the net on its way to Narnia.

The Kilworth Kommandoes were delirious with delight, so much so that vuvuzelas and raucous cheers almost lifted the roof off the stand. The lads had barely caught their breath when Kenny pulled the trigger again, only to see his rocket just about tipped away by the Iceland keeper.

Ireland were in almost total control now. The crowd were dancing in the aisles, and cheering like no tomorrow. Full time and a marvellous victory for the boys in green! And the lads were delighted when the Irish team came immediately to the St Anne's End to thank the Kilworth crew for helping lift them to a famous victory.

Cork City FC owner Dermot Usher has been in touch to thank the Kilworth lads for their amazing support of the team, and to invite us back on the basis that we’re a bit cracked. The plan is to take more Kilworth members to a match very, very soon. Bring your earplugs, Dermot!

U12S AWAY TO LISMORE

Our U12s headed to Lismore for their last league game of the season and competed well for long periods against the newly-crowned champions. Best for Kilworth were Jack Condon, Charlie O'Brien and Darragh Lynch while Darragh Crowley also played a crucial role in midfield. Ultimately we were very grateful to our star keeper JJ Cahill for a series of outstanding saves.

We learned a lot from this game and we now know what we have to do in order to compete next season. Our attention now turns to the WWEC cup where we will travel to Mogeely in the coming weeks.

U14S ON THE BRINK OF WINNING THE LEAGUE!

Our mighty U14s are on the verge of creating a unique dynasty. This group of boys have been crowned WWEC U12 and U13 champions in the last 2 seasons of competition. This coming weekend, they take on Brideview United on their home patch. A win, or indeed a draw will see the Kilworth Celtic FC team claim the mantle of WWEC U14 Champions for 2023.

Head Coach Elton Pierce is relishing the challenge. “We've a great squad of lads who always turn up for training , do everything that's asked of them and have shown huge consistency over the last few seasons. So regardless of how Saturday goes, the coaches are hugely proud of every one of them. The Brideview and Cappoquin fixtures are always the toughest matches in the league so we know it'll be really hard down there but hopefully the boys play like we know they can and get the result on the day.”

Best of luck to the boys and the coaching panel of Pa Cotter, Rory Crowley, Conor Cooney and Steve Ball. The whole village is cheering for you, and hope that Saturday, 1st April marks another historic day for the club.

U10 BOYS ROUND OFF SEASON WITH HOME MATCH

In an end of season clash, Kilworth Celtic U10 boys took on Ballybridge FC at home on Sunday. After four highly enjoyable, competitive and close matches, there was little to split the teams. Boys from both teams played to the very best of their level, with some great attacking and defensive play throughout. Thank you to Ballybridge for travelling, their positive attitude and for providing such enjoyable matches.

While there were many standout performances, a special mention to top scorer on the day Jack Flynn. Jack’s progression this year has been excellent and it was fitting that he ended the season on a great high!

As we close out on the official season, the coaches would like to thank every last boy for their dedication, respect and overall performance this year. A special thank you to all the parents for taking the boys to training and games also.

BOYS U11S AWAY TO FERMOY FC

On a lovely Sunday morning our Under 11s travelled the short distance to Fermoy for two side by side games. With all grass pitches closed Fermoy are benefiting from the investment in their full size Astro and what an asset it is to the club. The boys were split into two teams and all got plenty of game time with two games each.

Fermoy are a very good side and were a super test for both teams. We managed to get the upper hand in one of the games and went down in the other three, however all the boys learned good lessons and are constantly improving. Special mention to two lovely goals from in form stiker Kai O'Meara finishing off two lovely through ball assists from Frank O'Brien and David Sisk.

Many thanks to Fermoy for hosting us and we will hopefully return the favour when the weather improves. In the afternoon a bunch of the U11s parents and kids also travelled to Turners Cross to see the U21s team and the future of Irish football. A great day out was enjoyed by all. Saturday brings the final of the U11 Cup for these boys, a good chance to enjoy the occasion and experience a final. Win or Lose they have done great getting this far.

Best of luck to our U14s who can win the WW/EC League this weekend against Brideview.

Best of luck to our U11s in the final of the WW/EC Cup against Mogeely FC in Ardmore!

SPORT

en-ie

2023-03-30T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-30T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://avondhu.pressreader.com/article/283407720990130

The Avondhu (Ireland)