UNDER 12 LEAGUE: STRAND CELTIC 3 MANOR RANGERS 2
Strandhill Community Park

Our under 12 side carved out a narrow victory against a strong Manor Rangers side in strandhill on Saturday morning last. At the end there was the minimum between the sides as every time the celts pulled away Manor Rangers came back to leave the crowd nervous until the end.

Strand started well and with Fiachra Cogan and Aaron O Boyle threatening up the flanks they carved a few openings. The opening goal came from a Liam McElhinney cross with Fiachra Cogan finishing from close in with a sublime first touch finish. A lovely move involving Shay Doherty and Aaraon O Boyle sent Shane McCallion clear and his shot went narrowly wide. The deserved second goal came ten minutes later when good work by Marc Ryan saw Cillian Egan finish well.

The second half was a tighter affair as Manor Rangers bounced back and grabbed a goal from close in ten minutes into the half. With the game delicately poised this young strand celtic side continued to break and their pace was clearly troubling the Manor defence. They grabbed a third when Fiachra Cogan capped off a good performance with a fine finish. Marc Ryan was also unlucky when his delightful chip seemed to bounce down behind the line off the crossbar but with no video replay it was impossible to say if it was a goal and Manor cleared. Stephen Mulligan also did well as his pace and trickery troubled the Manor Rangers defence on several occasions but Strand could just not get that goal that would have guaranteed victory. Manor setup a nervous final five minutes when they scored with a good strike from just inside the box.

Our lads held on as the impressive sweeper, Jack Gilligan, marshaled his back four of Daniel Kilgallen, Liam McElhinney and Donnacha Gilligan well to hold out for those final minutes.