The u13 boys traveled to Ardee on Wednesday evening for the U14 Div.3 Final against Newtown Blues.

The conditions were perfect and the match was an entertaining one for the large crowd in attendance.

The Gers struggled in the first 10 minutes and to get a foothold in the middle playing against 2 strong 14 year olds a lot bigger than them. The Drogheda outfit scored 4 of the first 5 points, a Sean Spaight effort all the Gers had to show for the opening period.

As the half wore on our 2 midfielders Aaron O’Donoghue & Joe Lynch grew into the game and helped set up many attacks to get Gers on the score sheet, initially with a Sean Garvey goal. Good combinations and work between Aaron and Sean Spaight, and also Joe’s found his passing game and found his forwards regularly the result of which was Sean Spaight helped himself to a further 2:3.

The final score of the half was the most satisfying. Roan Carroll picked out Roan Norton with a superb pass on his weaker right foot to leave him through on goal. Roan in turn finished to the net with a deft finish on his weaker foot for his second goal of the half.

At this stage it was end to end football and the Blues getting some good scores in fact this would have be a lot worst only for some great pressure by our full back line of Danny de Lasa, Niall Coleman and Daniel Hanna. It was also great to see our Centre-half Ronan Duggan execute the near hand tackle superbly on one of the Blues best players and as match was videoed on the day definitively a good viewing to teach this skill. Jack Scanlon, Oliver Kerley, Ross Nordon, Hugo Nolan and Aaron did great work as outlets for the ever-solid goal-keeper Jacob Perkowski to find them with his kickouts.

The Gers were in command at the break by 6:4 to 0:8.

Unfortunately, it was a different story in the 2nd half as the Blues really raised their game and showed their physical side with most of our players playing a year out of their age group, matters weren’t help where a number of the players had school football earlier and you could really see our guys tired as the game went on. Conal Gaughran came on and brought some much needed energy and endeavor up front.

The Drogheda lads imposed themselves on the match starting with a goal to kick-start their revival. The Gers lads tried to stem the tide, but the Blue tails were up and his was proving to be difficult. The effort of the Gers was admirable, but the strength of the Blues onslaught meant they opened up a significant lead. To their credit, the Gers finished strongly, with 2 more goals, one each from Sean Garvey and Roan Norton but alas the clock was the winner as the Blues held on for victory by a score-line of 5:23 to 8:4.

This was a great achievement for this team to get to this final and the coaches are very proud on the entire panel. Football was the winner as this team got extra football through these games which will stand to them in the long run and most satisfactory too was players continue to use their non-dominant foot to great effect. We are ready to go again starting with the Cooley tournament.

Comhghairdeas ar an iarracht iontach ó na buachaillí go léir!!

GRMA Newtown for a sporting encounter, agus Comhghairdeas daobh 👍

Next outing is on Saturday for the Bammel Malone Tournament in Cooley.