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Red Hughs
- 4-12, Gweedore -1-8
Our U16 team travelled to Pairc na Gael, the home of Letterkenny Gaels on Monday night to take on Gweedore in the final of the Division 2 Shield. Red Hughs brought a large support with them which was
fantastic to see and their presence was warmly welcomed.
The game was never going to be easy to predict as Gweedore
have a strong tradition of underage success while Red Hughs
dispatched of their opponents comfortably in recent games. The
opening quarter with tit for tat with both teams trading scores, the pick
of these was a super Jonathon Carlin point.
The men from Magheragallon
were very tenacious in the tackle and restricted the space given to our
central players. Luckily for Red Hughs, they had
men on the wings prepared to take the game by the scruff of the neck. When
Martin Byrne gathered the ball in midfield he surged down the wing, turning
& twisting numerous Gweedore men before
feeding the ball into James McMenamin who fisted Pauric McMenamin through on
goal. McMenamin who had a terrific game slammed
the ball to the net to put the Hughs a goal
ahead. This really put a spring into their step, Colm
Melaugh, James McMenamin
and a great Gary Kelly score pushed them further into the lead.
However the play was not all one sided,
Gweedore attacked in waves putting together some
fantastic moves, however Shane Gallen at
full-back was rock solid and no doubt a contender for man of the match
cleaning up everything that came his way. Conor Gallen done
a lot of dirty work tracking back and taking the ball out of defence, while
Kelly covered every blade of grass.
H/T: Red Hughs 1-8, Gweedore 1-3.
Both teams came out of the blocks
flying after the interval, Gweedore added a good
point before the ball broke to Jonny Carlin who kept a cool head after
controlling the ball soccer-style and sent an unstoppable shot beyond the
out rushing keeper.
Credit to Gweedore as they never gave up, but
they goal which they needed continued to evade them. Their inter-county
players showed their class but anytime Red Hughs attacked
it was meaningful, Pauric McMenamin
who was in dazzling form added another goal and a point to effectively kill
the game off.
Red Hughs looked to be in cruise
control, however they were not satisfied to just defend and see out the
game. Kyle McConnell who replaced the injured James McMenamin
lived up to his super sub tag with a well taken point within minutes of his
arrival.
Conor Gallen went
powering up the field but his shot looked to be drifting wide, luckily
Shane McGuire anticipated this and waited for the ball to enter the square
before coolly fisting to the net.
Michael Devine and Sean McMenamin worked hard after they came on, although they
had little time they used the ball well and didn’t concede possession under
pressure.
Luke Kelly had another flawless performance in nets, his kick outs were
superb, spraying the ball all over the field with pinpoint accuracy with he
looked cool under high balls.
The full back line
were extremely composed and didn’t create unnecessary work for
themselves. Enda Coyle & Shane McGlinchey got out in front on countless occasions
while Shane Gallen was flawless and surely has
inter-county potential. Young Stephen McMenamin
as ever gave a terrific performance; he was extremely composed when in possession
and made light work of the task in hand.
The half backs did not attack as much
as usual due to the threat of the Gweedore
forwards, Ronan Gallen marshalled the line well
and Fintain Muldoon done what he had to do with
little fuss. Gary Kelly and Conor Gallen were immense, they got
through a mountain of work and were extremely effective in possession. They
definitely won the midfield battle and these two lads have big futures
ahead on them in the black and red.
Shane Gallagher was full of craft,
jinking and selling dummy passes all day, he thrived on the balls being
sprayed out to the wings and linked up well with Luke Kelly from kick outs.
Colm Melaugh was
unfortunate to be double marked and found space very limited at centre half
forward, nevertheless the extra attention seemed to spur him on. He kicked soem good scores under pressure. He played a
play-makers role sending some delightful balls into the forward line. James
McMenamin got a good long range score and
converted a few frees but found possession hard to come upon. He done well
to put McMenamin through for the first goal,
unfortunately he had to come off near the end with a foot injury.
The youthful forward line gave
performances way beyond their years, Jonathon Carlin, Martin Byrne and Pauric McMenamin provided
excellent outlets for the backs to distribute the ball. The done just about
everything you could ask from a forward with great movement, passing and
directness. All three were contenders for man-of-the-match. Big
well done to all involved.
It wasn’t long after the game when a
message was received from Red Hughs most loyal
supporters!... Charlie and Alice sent their
congratulations all the way from sunny Tenerife!
Team
& Scorers: Luke
Kelly, Shane Mc Glinchey,
Shane Gallen, Enda
Coyle, Stephen Mc Menamin,
Ronan Gallen, Fintan
Muldoon, Gary Kelly (0-2), Connor Gallen, Marty
Byrne, Colm Melaugh
(0-2) Shane Gallagher, Pauric Mc
Menamin (2-2) James Mc Menamin (0-4), Jonathan Carlin (1-1) Subs: Michael
Devine, Shane Mc Guire
(1-0), Kyle Mc Connell (0-1) Sean Mc Menamin
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