South Belfast Youth League u11
St Mary’s FC 2-1 Bloomfield FC
St Mary’s joined old foes Rosario at the summit of Division One table following Saturday’s hard fought win against East Belfast side Bloomfield at Orangefield pitches, Castlereagh.
Matthew Shannon settled St Mary’s early nerves with the opening goal on 8 minutes when cutting in from the left and drilling the ball home. But their lasted barely two minutes as Bloomfield hit back to level with a good finish beyond Oliver Breen.
Eoin McNicholl and the industrious Shannon were asking plenty of questions of the Bloomfield defence when attacking from the wide positions but without reward.
Play switched from end to end with St Mary’s goalie Breen forced into making a smart save down low while at the other end Eoin O’Reilly worked the Bloomfield keeper with an effort from the edge of the area.
For the remainder of the first period, the match became a battle for possession in the midfield area and in Mark Davey and skipper Jack Parke, St Mary’s had two players who were prepared to put their foot in when required and both covered an enormous amount of ground.
St Mary’s had a lucky escape just on the blow of the half time whistle, when the Bloomfield centre forward escaped the attentions of both Aidan Begley and Patrick Ross but with Oliver ‘The Cat’ Breen lurking, he panicked an skewed his shot wide.
The St Mary’s management team of McNulty, McDaid and Quinn demanded more effort from their team during the half time interval and to their credit the team responded.
St Mary’s hemmed Bloomfield into their own half right from the kick off with Cormac Morgan excellent in a more attacking advanced role down the left hand side. Some tidy football from Morgan on forty minutes tee’d up Shannon but the Bloomfield keeper was alert and tipped the ball around the post to safety.
But St Mary’s grabbed the all decisive goal during this period when it looked like the ball had run away from skipper Jack Parke, but with a swivel of the hips, Parke unleashed an unstoppable shot into the roof of the Bloomfield net.
Mark Davey very nearly made the game safe for St Mary’s on fifty minutes but his effort from an Eoin McNicholl corner narrowly cleared the crossbar.
C’mac was harshly yellow carded soon after but he didn’t let it affect his game and had the Bloomfield goalie scrambling with an effort from a full 25 yards.
St Mary’s took the opportunity to utilise the squad and brought on some fresh legs in the shape of Aidan Quinn, Eoin Lundy and Daniel Hackett and all the boys played their part in protecting that precious one goal lead and a valuable three points.
Manager McNulty commented that’ the team thought today’s game was going to be a stroll in the park having defeated Bloomfield fairly comprehensively earlier in the season but it was a game where the boys had to roll up their sleeves and get stuck in and got their just rewards’.
Man of the match – Matthew Shannon
