League v Greenwood in Coffeys Field on Monday 28th May 2018
Greenwood 1 Carrigtwohill United 1
Scorer: Anesh Swani

Carrigtwohill Under-16’s travelled to Coffey’s Field on a beautiful warm summers evening to play Greenwood in a fixture that they had been looking forward to for a while. There is little history between these sides, except for a narrow 1-0 win for Greenwood in a Cup match at Under-13 all those years ago. This was to be a most entertaining match for all present.

The match would end as a draw, but really nobody could have predicated this. The home side started very strongly, with good passing and strong running especially on the left wing where they were particularly dangerous. The Carrigtwohill central defensive pairing of Sean deBurca and Alex Canty were very solid, but they were being pushed back with Greenwood probing and putting in crosses which were ably dealt with. The visitors were restricted to chances on the break, with Niall Harte working well as a lone striker, and Evan Donnelly coming very close from a chance on the right wing. Darragh Hoare came close and a superb passing move found Ronan deep in the opposition penalty box but his shot was snuffed out. Greenwood continued to have most of the territory and had several frees and corners which were dangerous but dealt with – just about. Half-time was a welcome break and a chance to recharge as the heat was energy sapping and it was important to hydrate.

The second half was a completely different match. It was now the visitors who were controlling midfield and had the majority of possession. With Calvin Fitzgearld now playing as striker, and good work by James Barry in midfield, they were carving open the Greenwood defence with chances falling to Darragh, Evan and Calvin at various stages. In one particular play, Ronan weaved his way through three players into the penalty box and cleverly laid a ball off to Niall Harte who narrowly shot wide.

However, as so often happens, when you feel you are about to score, the opposition hit you with a sucker punch and so it was. From a corner, Carrigtwohill conceded a very unlucky own goal from a glanced header. It was all hands to the deck at this point, and yet again it was Anesh Swani who came up with the goods. Anesh picked up the ball in midfield, pushed forward and unleashed a shot which the goalkeeper was unable to hold and spilled into the net. Anesh has now scored in 4 of the last 5 matches and each one of those goals has proved to be vitally important for the team.

One goal each and all to play for. Both teams continued to push hard for the winner but to no avail. It was a highly entertaining and high quality soccer match with good passing and skills on show no doubt a feature of the good playing conditions and weather.

Yet again, it was another superb display of attacking midfield play from Darragh Hoare who covered every blade of grass on the pitch on a warm sunny evening. On another day, he could have scored 3 goals, but it was his overall display which rightly earned him the man of the match award in this one.

Player of the Match; Darragh Hoare