The St Brendans u12 boys team served up a treat in Longmeadows today with a fantastic display, in the final league game of the year against the league leaders Clontarf. This was a rearranged fixture which the weather nearly prevented from going ahead again but a last minute switch to Longmeadows meant the game could go ahead as planned. 

At the start of play, St. Brendans were sitting in second place in the league, 2 points behind the leaders and knew only a victory would bring them level with Clontarf at the top of the table. Playing with the aid of a stiff breeze, St Brendans got off to the worst possible start when some good play from the Clontarf forwards saw them in for a goal in the first minute of the game. 

John replied almost immediately with a great point from long range and this helped to settle the players nerves. The defenders, Taha, Milosz, Jake, Yuhang and PJ played with great focus and determination to limit the scoring opportunities of the Clontarf attackers, who only managed a few wides for the remainder of the half.  

The midfield of Jack, George and John began to dominate the kick outs and George soon cut the deficit to one point with a great long range score. The forwards were all doing their jobs well, making it difficult for the Clontarf team to work the ball out. This led to more scores with goals from John and George to leave the half time score St Brendans 2-2 Clontarf 1-0. 

With the advantage of the wind, we expected a strong response from the Clontarf team in the second half and they didn’t disappoint. As in the first half, they claimed an early goal and this left only 2 points between the sides. It looked like the comeback was on, but the St Brendans players did not let this early setback impact them. John, who covered every blade of grass on the pitch, struck for a goal almost immediately to take the wind out of the Clontarf sails!

Yuhang switched to midfield for the second half and his great energy and determination set up several attacks. He too got on the scoresheet with a well taken goal that his performance fully  deserved. With George moving back to center back, Clontarf found it difficult to launch attacks but any time they did the full back line of Taha, Milosz and Jake cleared their lines with style. 

The forwards became the first line of defence and excellent work from Eduard and Lucas led to a turnover, Bartosz fed the ball to Seamus and he took his point well for a great team score. An almost carbon copy score happened a minute later when more great work from the forward unit led to Daniel finding space to pop the ball over the bar.  

John rounded off his player of the game display with 2 more goals which guaranteed the 2 points for St Brendans and a place at the top of the table! 

A special mention to Araf, playing in goals with the u12’s for the first time. He made several good saves and got his kickouts to a St. Brendans player every time, contributing greatly to a great overall team performance. 

Final score St Brendans 7-4 Clontarf 2-0.

Scorers: John 4-1, George 1-1, Yuhang 1-0, A.N. Other 1-0, Seamus 0-1, Daniel 0-1
Team: Araf, Taha, Milosz, Jake, PJ, Yuhang, John, George, Jack, Seamus, Daniel, Bartosz, Eduard and Lucas
Player of the week: John