St Mary’s U13’s recorded their 11th win in 12 league games with an impressive attacking display in a 5-1win against Celtic Boys at Mallusk on Saturday. It means they have completed a league double over the wee hoops, and keeps them top of the league by a single point from Abbeyvilla.
Right from the kick-off St Mary’s went at their opponent in search of an early breakthrough with Ross being the first to have a go when shooting just over the bar from 18 yards. Minutes later Park had an effort which went narrowly wide, and O Reilly also went close with a shot.
On ten minutes they deservedly took the lead when McGarritty bravely got his head to an inswinging Ross corner to nod the ball home for a 1-0 lead. On other corners from Ross no-one was able to apply the finishing touch to a series of finely taken corner kicks. Five minutes later they doubled their lead when Lynch took a pass from McNaughton and he cut into the area and coolly slotted home from 10 yards.
With 20 minutes gone the game was over as a contest when Ross scored with a shot for 15 yards. Just then a little complacency set in in the St Mary’s defence and thanks to a couple of failed attempted clearances from Breen and Begley, the Celtic striker was through and lobbed the unlucky Quinn in nets to make it 3-1. The moment of the half came when Begley managed to turn three Celtic players in the middle with a deft turn which had his father purring on the line like a Cheshire cat.
Half time 3-1 St Mary’s.
The second half started much the same as the first with St Mary’s in the ascendancy with the defence of Quinn, Begley, Lynch, Breen and Donaghy in total control. With 5 minutes gone in the 2nd half, McGarritty tore down the left flank and beat his man and then the keeper. His squared ball was cleared only to Ross at the edge of the box, and he superbly fired it into the top corner. To everyone’s amazement, the referee disallowed the goal for an unknown infringement and the score remained at 3-1. This sense of injustice only spurred Ross on and soon after he picked up the ball on the halfway line and went on a mazy run beating 3 players on the way, before unleashing a thunderbolt which gave the hapless Celtic keeper no chance at all to make it 4-1. A definite contender for goal of the season !
The coaches made several changes with Bannon, O Malley, Morgan and Breen all coming on as substitutes. Soon after his introduction Bannon fed Breen in the box and he stabbed the ball home from 8 yards to complete scoring for the day at 5-1.
Soon after this some guys from both sides got involved in a bit of name calling with the end result being one player from each side being shown a red card. For the most part the match was played in a good spirit, but in truth the young referee was unable to handle the refereeing of this game.
The coaches plan to speak with the boys to get them to continue to let their football do the talking on the pitch, which is what has got them to the top of the table.
Star man on the day was P Ross, and November’s player of the month award will be handed out before this week’s game against Larne Youth.
