Just when we thought Irish weather couldn’t get any worse, along comes hurricane Belmont to devastate Cabinteely!

Belmont 4-Cabinteely 1 (HT 3-1)
By our meteorologist
Photographs courtesy of Fahy F
The sleepy south county Dublin village of Cabinteely (‘kab-in-tee-lee’) became the latest victim of Ireland’s appalling spate of weather yesterday when their under 8 football team was demolished by hurricaine Belmont in Herbert Park shortly before midday. “November was a dreadful month with flooding and relentless rain, but nothing could have prepared us for the tragedy that struck us today” wept a distraught Cabinteely parent as he wandered dazed through Herbert Park shortly after the storm had passed. The Belmont team, upgraded from a tropical storm to a category 1 hurricane with the introduction of Robert Cuddy as manager, displayed breath-taking power in crushing a team that appeared totally unprepared for the calamity. Cuddy afterwards described the event as “The full majesty of nature unleashing its awesome force against an unsuspecting populous” and predicted that “The Cabinteely players may struggle for hours, or even a day, to rebuild their lives after this catastrophic event.”
Ironically, the match was played in warm December sunshine with guest manager Cuddy playing a familiar 2-3-1 formation with Sherwin in goal, Cloonan and Sheehan in defence, McNulty (C), Cuddy and Booth in midfield and Boggan in attack. The match started tamely enough with the highlight being some excellent passing manoeuvres by the Belmont team without really threatening devastation, or even minor damage to Cabinteely. Cloonan and Sheehan presented a cold front in defence as usual, which allowed their midfield and attacking players to push forward without fear of counter-attack. There was some neat play throughout the team and it was clear that storm clouds were gathering with some scattered interchanges between McNulty, Booth, Cuddy and Boggan beginning to cause some mild structural damage to the Cabinteely team whose defence was weakening slowly. Disaster finally struck on 9 minutes when a fine through ball from Mulcahy found Boggan in a relatively small low-pressure area just inside the penalty box from where he rifled the ball with lightning speed into the right corner of the net. “It was like an explosion” said a grief-stricken Cabinteely manager “We had no forewarning, no inkling, no idea of what was going to take place and were in total shock. This is a disaster”.
The initial goal was followed by a sustained increase in attack speed from the Belmont team as cyclones Fahy and Cloonan made their presence felt and a further onslaught from left midfield again found Boggan clear of defenders. As one might expect, he immediately shot past the Cabinteely goalkeeper with a fine right footed thunderstorm into the net. Yet, Mother Nature has a way of compensating for her cruelty and in the 18th minute she provided some respite for Cabinteely when they staged a brief comeback with a fine goal from their centre forward. Although this provided an apparent initial challenge to Belmont, Mulcahy shot home from close range on 19 minutes and the Cabinteely players and supporters took on an even gloomier air.
Half time provided some respite and the initial stages of the second half were quiet as the eye of the storm passed over. Yet, a further ridge of high pressure began to develop in Belmont’s defence and midfield with deft passing and running throughout and Cabinteely’s depression deepened further when Mulcahy unleashed a microburst from the edge of the penalty box on 30 minutes, after fine play from Sherwin and Fahy, to complete Cabinteely’s devastation. It is clear that the best, and only, way to win a football match is by passing to a teammate rather than trying to beat an opposition player and Belmont appear to be taking on this passing tactic more and more as the season progresses.
Overall, this was a fine performance from a team that had not played together competitively since late October. Their supporters were in upbeat form as photographer Fergal Fahy said “After some character building exercises of pitch lining, grass cutting and goalpost building, the team was still not too tired and went out to show the managers that they can produce the goods even against all the odds. Victory was never in doubt from the start and Belmont, despite their lack of match practice over the last few weeks, worked brilliantly together to achieve another great result”. Another supporter, who declined to be named, said “It’s also interesting to note that this victory took place against a background devoid of both Liam Boggan and Hugh Mulcahy, whose management positions must now be under some threat.” Neither Boggan nor Mulcahy were available for comment at the time of going to press and this correspondent feels that this is entirely in keeping with their ill-mannered attitude towards a wonderful team. Conditions may well be deteriorating for them and the long term forecast now suggests further unsettled weather…. Watch this space.