Football fails to bring relief
Wednesday August 18 2010
A TOUGH weekend on the football side of things. After a week when I could have written a book about the goings on in my other life, which probably passes as business, I looked forward to the relief that football often brings, though I'm not sure if 'relief' is the right word at all times.
We lost 1-0 to our near neighbours Waterford at the RSC on Friday night in a closely-fought game that didn't always represent value to the spectator. The Youths didn't play well enough to take advantage of a nervous Waterford side that seem to have lost their way of late, but still remain close enough to the promotion chasing pack to gain entry to the Premier Division, should they rediscover their earlier season form.
Sadly, it wasn't the quality of the football that got the crowd excited, rather the two poor tackles from substitute Paul Murphy, which earned him a red card. The Wexford boy plying his trade with Waterford is an immense talent crying out for a discipline which has eluded him. Without discipline the human being remains the sum of his unrealised potential. Best on the night for Wexford were Danny Furlong and Kevin Rowe.
Early start on Saturday morning for an Under-18 tournament in Carrigaline and four games in two days. Lost the first game to Crumlin United despite dominating possession, played poorly in the second as we lost to Carrigaline.
We found our form in the third as we beat Cork City 2-0 in an epic struggle, and beat last season's Cork Under-17 double winners, Cork Corinthians, 3-0 in our final game, just missing out on a place in the final.
Our goals came from Rioghan Crosbie, David Miller, Robert Dempsey, Aidan Lehane and Martin Broaders. It was a great experience for this new group of players and should prove hugely beneficial in the course of their development as a unit - thanks again to Pat Ronan for helping to make it happen.
There were very tired boys returned to their mammies on Sunday evening - the best of a hard-working squad were Robert Dempsey, Richard Kumar and David Miller, who picked up the player of the tournament award. I felt sore myself this morning - just wondering if I had played some of the games as well, strangely but I didn't notice a lot of the 'relief' stuff over the weekend.
- MICK WALLACE
