Under-13 CSL Div 1
27th August 2022 at Mallow Racecourse
Mallow Town – 3
Carrigtwohill United – 5
Carrigtwohill United Under-13’s started their Division One league campaign with a tricky away fixture at v’s Mallow Town last Saturday 27th. Coaches were on their best behaviour the night before with a 10am kick off Saturday morning!!
It was an early start for the boys too, they were focused from the warm-up and started the game with great intensity. After 3 minutes, Sam made a run from centre midfield and played in Aaron with a nice through ball, a lovely finish to the right of the keeper by the in-form Aaron put us 1-0 up. On 11 minutes, a hand ball in the penalty area led to the referee pointing to the spot…Michael cool and calmly slotted the penalty to the right-hand side of the keeper. Good pressure by us in the early stages of the game.
Mallow Town responded quickly hitting the post from a corner and on 24 minutes made it 2-1. A quick second goal followed as we gave away possession from the kick off and didn’t close down quickly enough – an easy goal for Mallow Town to equalise 3 or 4 passes later. To the boy’s credit, on 27 minutes Aaron got on the scoresheet for his second goal of the day – another fine run behind defenders and a low finish past the keeper again. It was great to see the boys bounce back after the Mallow Town equaliser and shows great strength of character within this group to bounce back so quickly.
Bart made some good stops throughout the game, his ball distribution was superb. Michael, Odhran, Cian and Jack – supported by Luke B and Karol, defended solidly. They expertly handled periods of pressure dealing with Mallow Town’s pace up front and distributed the ball really well when in possession as well. We did lose our captain for the day Cian mid-way through the second half which was a set-back, and Aaron for a period too in the first but Michael as replacement centre back and JP for Aaron, slotted in well to limit the damage on the day.
9 minutes into the second half, a lovely assist from Owen led to Aaron bagging his hat- trick. On 45 minutes Aaron was on hand again with another terrific, powerful finish to make it 5-2 and give us a bit of breathing space. On 48 minutes Mallow Town did pull another goal back with a ball over the top and a strong run into the space behind by their central midfielder. However the boys played the remainder of the game largely in the Mallow Town half to see out the win.
Sam and Isaac had good control in the central midfield positions – we generally controlled the middle of the pitch for most of the game and they also supported the strikers really well. Fionn, Ryan and Oisin all worked hard throughout tracking back to preserve our lead(s) but also getting into good offensive positions when attacking. Owen and Aaron are getting used to playing as a partnership up front, creating lots of opportunities for each other.
Aaron on the day was deserved man of the match of the day for his endless running, creating space for himself while putting pressure on opposition defenders – scoring 4 goals in the process!Well done Aaron!
We’ll take the learnings and drive on! A tough home game v’s Leeds next!
Carrigtwohill Scorers: Aaron Power (4), Michael Sullivan (1)
Player of the Match: Aaron Power
