After a break due to the mid term and two unlucky defeats the Belmont Under 9 players assembled in Herbert park in the warm sunshine for a late October fixture against St.James.
As the year progresses the variations in the starting team are beginning to be predictable with some players basically interchangeable for each other and some kids making huge strides with their skills whilst others have loads of room to improve to really challenge for a starting position on the team. Boggan and Mulcahy as a management team have been gifted a group of players with real skills to win matches. Likewise we have an unerring ability to tinker with the team mid match and run the risk of throwing it all away by experimenting and so turning success into near disaster.
Belmont were at their most boring , Hugh Mulcahy accused Liam Boggan of not being capable of an original thought. In his turn at team selection. So with Calum Dowling the latest player to don the Goalie Jersey the starting team was Luke and Mark in Defence, Brian Cuddy, Marcus Boggan and John Mulcahy in midfield and Patrick Sherwin as striker. Jamie Yarr , John O’Brien and Cathal Dempsey ,Conor Booth and Ciaran O’Sullivan made up the bench at the kick off.
The match started off auspiciously with John Mulcahy ramming the ball home within the first five minutes but his St.James team were more like the team we were expecting and the rustiness of the Belmont players who had clearly enjoyed many late nights , lots of video games and certainly a paucity of football practice soon found themselves at the receiving end of a sudden break by St. James whose striker found himself clear with the Belmont defenders beaten. A well taken strike gave our latest goalkeeper Calum Dowling little chance. The shock of the comeback by St.James was compounded a short while time later by the second well taken goal from St.James which saw Belmont slip into a 2-1 deficit.
Suddenly as half time approached and against the run of play there was surely one of those moments which will be remembered as one of the goals of the season as Marcus Boggan returned a St.James Goal kick on the volley. The ball seemed to fly in slow motion across a huge arc in the direction of the net. The assembled supporters had time to fall silent and watch gob smacked. The St.James Keeper could only stand and look in horror as the ball he had just kicked out soared past him in the direction of his own goal. He turned and ran as Marcus shot bounced short of the goal but it had the pace to carry on and by the time the St.James Goal keeper made it back to his goal, he was just in time to retrieve the ball from the back of the net.
2-2 … game on ..and so it was at half time.
Belmont let Calum loose as a striker and Conor Booth took up position in Goal. We had started with Calum taking his turn in goal , Conor Booth as striker , The midfield of John Mulcahy , Brian Cuddy and Marcus Boggan and the usual defenders of Luke Sheehan and Mark Cloonan. During the first half Jamie Yarr had been brought on to give Brian Cuddy a rest and later Brian was sent back on to give Conor Booth a break and Marcus Boggan brought ashore for a rest and was ably replaced by Patrick Sherwin.
Belmont were suffering the after effects of the holiday break…and despite a lot or running around and energy being expended with Patrick and Luke combining well to thread the ball towards the St.James goal there was precious little reward. On the contrary it was St.James who threaded a string of fine passes to leave their striker alone with the Belmont Defence scrambling once again and suddenly disaster St.James scored their third goal.
John O’Brien came on in midfield and was extremely lively running rings around his opposite number. John is taking time to discover his natural position in this team. He eventually was switched to defence where he seemed to be more comfortable and made a number of strong tackles.
Suddenly the Belmont players and crowd of parents and spectators came to life. This game was not going away and there was still more than ten minutes left. Now the Belmont team showed its mettle and fought with renewed vigour. The effort was rewarded when a fine series of passes was rewarded with Jamie Yarr blasting his way onto the score sheet to level the match with 10 minutes to play.
Could we get the magical fourth goal ? Cathal Dempsey came on to replace Mark Cloonan in Defence . Mark had run his heart out.
Prof Mulcahy stood impatiently on the sidelines as his fellow manager Boggan made reckless switches of positions between the players in a desperate attempt to unlock the best combination of players . The St.James Manager took a big decision and himself and made several substitutions to try and hang on til the end. It may have been the luckiest break for us but the momentum and tide continued to inexorably turn in our favour.
Three minutes to go and the referee signals a corner , Time to throw caution to the wind. A snap decisison return John Mulcahy to the fray and risked being without Cathal and exposed in terms of defence for the last few minutes. No one had got past Cathal on his watch and we took the riskiest decision to throw everything at the St.James goal for the last few minutes.
So we had six proven goal scorers on the pitch , Five jammed into St.James Box and Marcus king of the long range shot manning the perimeter of the box.readty to shoot or defend. Desperate stuff but the momentum was on our side. The ball was parried by St.James , Another Corner , then another and finally a melee in front of the St.James Box.
The Belmont Mums and Dads yelling , the managers yelling, the St.James Manager barking orders to his team all added to the volume as the crowds along the touchline in Herbert park swelled as the last desperate moments of the game ebbed away.
Suddenly in a move reminiscent of John Mulcahy’s first goal , Calum Dowling saw the gap open up in front of him and he stabbed the ball from close range into the net to grab the fourth goal and a famous victory. Cue celebrations by players , managers and parents alike.
Posts
