On Sat (19th Jan) the U14 lads welcomed Tuam Celtic AFC to Drum. At the start of the game both teams had to contend with a thick & heavy blanket of fog which seemed to engulf the footprint of Drum. Top referee, Martin Connelly informed both teams prior to kick off, if conditions deteriorated in the interest of player welfare he would have no option but to call the game off. Thankully conditions improved & this did not happen. Good call Martin.
Right from off the Devon lads took control in midfield & owned possesion of the ball. That said the Tuam lads were up for a fight & their defence remained strong. Despite the possession advantage, the local lads made hard work of getting that elusive first goal & both sides went in at half time scoreless.
The local team made a number of changes before half time & these changes would pay dividends in the second half. The passing and pace of the Devon lads had now moved up a gear & the Tuam lads were finally starting to show gaps in their defence. In a well worked move, Darren Darcy made space for himself to take the ball into the 18 yard box only for a Tuam defender to clip his heels giving the ref an easy decision to award a penalty. Darren cool as a breeze stepped up and put the keeper the wrong way. Within ten minutes Devon were two up. This time Darren was the provider and delivered a laser like pass to allow Piotrek Szymanski who shrugged off a number of defenfers to efficently chip the ball past the keeper. On another day Piotrek would have ended the match with a hat trick with a number of attempts whizzing by the posts. Man of the match for the second week was Darren Darcy who ran himself into the ground. The back four also put in another solid performance. Other notable performances were Robert Madden at the back and Bright Brodericks in the middle of the park. This back to back win in 2019 continues the seagull lads good run in the league, scoring 7 goals in last two games & conceeding none.
Up next for the lads is a first round Premier/Championship Cup game Vs Kinvara Utd FC on the 2nd Feb at home.
P.S. Good to see Jamie Greaney who is still recovering from injury up and about and supporting the lads in the dug out.
