Match Report Saturday 15th September 2007 - Under 17’s v Rosario at Ulydia
This was St Mary's U17 first League outing of the new season. However, the team quickly got to grips with the opposition and imposed a firm control of the game from start to finish. The hold on the game resulted in the first goal of the season on 20 minutes following some determined pressing by Daniel McCreesh which saw the ball rocket into the top right hand corner of the net leaving the Rosario goalkeeper with little chance. Another few chances arose with Ryan McAuley going very close but the half drew to a close with no additional scores.
Leading 1 - 0 at half time St Mary's began the second half just as they'd finished the first with midfield strongly contested by Hugh Campbell, Chris Boy and Antoin Rooney whilst at the back Declan Hackett and Conor Saunders let nothing past. Conor Devlin in goals had little to do except attempt some second half strikes on the opposition goal from his own 18 yard box!
Finally the breakthrough to kill off the game came in the 60th minute when Declan Hackett played a long ball through the Rosario defence. Michael O'Reilly nipped in between the defenders and successfully chipped the outcoming goalkeeper to score his first competitive goal for St Mary's FC. Hopefully the first of many this season!
Only concern of the afternoon arose when Conor Saunders collided with the Rosario goalkeeper following a free kick and he had to leave the pitch to recover from a blow to the head. However, whilst unsure of the final score at the end of the match we can assure him he dUid return to finish the game!
The controlled lead allowed the team management to ensure all substitutes were given a runout and it was two of these, Jim Boyle combining with Kevin Meighan on the right hand side, who set up captain Chris Boy to slam in the 3rd goal of the day on 75 minutes to cap off a fine team display.