Thurles U14 soccer team go through to the FAI South-East Munster Cup final

Congratulations to our U14 Soccer panel, who have progressed to the FAI South-East Munster Cup final after emerging as winners in the East Munster Blitz played in Cahir Park on Thursday. Eight Tipperary schools contested the blitz with CBS Thurles coming out on top to represent East Munster in the final.

In the group stage, we played St Ailbes, Tipperary Town winning our first match two nil. We then lost out to Rockwell College, one nil and that made our final group game against Colaiste Dun Iascaigh, Cahir, a must-win game. That is exactly what this team did by putting in a tremendous display winning three goals to two to reach the semi-final stage.

In the semi-final, we faced Nenagh CBS, who dominated the early stages and we were lucky to be only a goal down at half time. Finn O'Brien in goals was in top form and denied Nenagh a second goal. However, the resilience shown by this team emerged and they fought back. The brilliance of Luis Moyano up front put two goals past the Nenagh defence. 

The final saw us taking on Rockwell College, who had defeated Cashel CS school in their semi, this time round our team led by our midfield general Dan Fennelly dominated the entire game. Conor Lee was outstanding on the right wing and put two goals past the College keeper to give us a strong half-time advantage. 

Once again Luis Moyano left the result in no doubt with 2 more superbly taken goals. In the final, our defence was rock solid with Finn O'Brien in goals, Eoghan Clancy, Cole Quigley, Evan O'Dwyer and Dylan Butler cutting out any opportunities for the opposition.

The trio of Dan Fennelly, Dean Troy and Liam Burke in midfield were combining well and with Conor Lee and Evined Commins on the wings constantly threatening the opposition. Up front, Luis Moyano with nine goals overall in the blitz was superb. Jack Butler and Mikey O'Brien kept up the pressure on the opposition as the game progressed. 

We are only as good as our panel, and the players who featured in the earlier games were Calvin Wade, Mohammad Asker, Adam Rice, Yago Ferreras and Dara Heffernan. This was an outstanding team performance and the leadership shown by second years Jason Patterson and Brandon Wade on the sideline was inspiring. Well done, lads on a superb team performance and best of luck in the Cup Final.

Contributed to School Days in the Tipperary Star by the CBS Thurles.