Our U15 team fell short in their first game of the season against Castlebar Mitchels in Ballintubber this afternoon. Despite a good showing from a team under the stewardship of Tony Duffy, Declan Joyce, Damien Flatley, Sean Coyne and Joe Geraghty, it was the goals that won for the Castlebar lads, with green flags in either half proving to be the winning margin at full time. Best for Ballintubber were Josh Mahon who caught plenty of ball at midfield, centre-forward Cillian Joyce who constantly ran at the Mitchels defence, and Stephen Burke who finished with a very impressive haul of five points from centre-back. Darragh Joyce also showed well at full-back while wing-back Darragh Fahrenheit gave a good account if himself against his former club, the highlighted by one superb block in the second half.
The irritating similarity between the two sets of red jerseys meant both teams playing cautiously in the opening stages. Noah Corbett pointed first for the Abbeysiders before Mitchels’ corner-forward David Grealis pointed the first of his five points. We then strung together three unanswered scores through Stephen Burke and Cillian Joyce before Matthew Coyne produced two fabulous saves in the Ballintubber goal.
Shortly after giving his side the lead with a well taken free, Mitchels’ sharpshooter David Grealis put sent an absolute bullet of a shot into the top corner of the ‘Tubber net from close range. Midfielder Eoghan Hughes, a panellist with the Mayo u-16 soccer side, attempted to rattled the net with what would’ve been an outrageous back heel, but his close-range shot trickled harmlessly wide of the goal.
Leading by five at half-time, Mitchels did find the net once more in the second half in the eleventh minute, cancelling out an earlier Josh Mahon free and putting them nine in front. To our credit, we kept plugging away with Josh Mahon pointing five minutes later before the impressive Stephen Burke added a quickfire pair of points.
In the face of a Mitchels full-back line which gave away nothing soft, Caobhlin Flatley and Nathan Gibbons got their names on the scoreboard before full-time, while Burke pointed his fifth. A free from David Grealis and an Eoghan Hughes point left the winning margin at six, which was perhaps an unfair reflection on some of the good football we played.
Ballintubber team that lined out: (1)Matthew Coyne (2)Kieran Heneghan (3)Darragh Joyce (4)Jamsie Lally (5)Darragh Fahy (6)Stephen Burke (0-5) (7)Luke Biggins (8)Josh Mahon (0-2, 1f) (9)James King (10)Sean Duffy (11)Cillian Joyce (12)Dean O’Malley (13)Nathan Gibbons (0-1) (14)Caobhlin Flatley (0-2) (15)Noah Corbett (0-1)
Substitutions used: Colm Reilly for Noah Corbett

Report by Oisín McGovern