VALEVIEW SHANKILL SFC-UNDER SEVEN C1 HALF SEASON REVIEW 2009/2010 (Now playing in the B1 league)

This is the second season for this team playing at under 7 and the season was greeted with great enthusiasm and anticipation. We have one new member of the team who progressed from the Panthers, Daniel Heaney. The team started pre season training with great enthusiasm and each of the lads put their all into each session. They couldn’t wait to get a game under their belts. We played a few pre season friendlies with some contrasting results so we weren’t sure what to expect from the team.

The start of the season finally arrived and our first match was Lakelands away, the lads all turned up and I have to say we were all a bit nervous Adrian and I included, it was miserable rainy morning and to add to our worries Ultan forgot his boots, so we hid him from the ref for the pre match inspection and snuck him on as a sub. And boy were we glad we did he played out of his skin and scored a wonder goal, and set up a few for super striker Cory who pitched in with a hat trick, Ciaran also pitched in with his first two goals for the club. All the nerves were unfounded as the lads cruised to victory. What a start, but could we keep it up? our next game was away to Joeys. We started badly in that game and were two down in the first five minutes, but we need not have worried as the lads are made of sterner stuff these days Neil and Cory combined to pull one back, Neil’s first goal for the club, minutes alter they did it again Neil’s second goal. Neil was having the game of his life as he ran the length of the pitch to make a goal saving tackle to keep it even, he then returned the favour to Cory setting him up to make 3: 2 at half time, Ultan then took over scoring a terrific long range effort, and setting up Cory for number 5 and Cory finished himself for six. Hugh and jack and Ciaran were immense in defence on the day, Fionn and Conor had fine games in midfield. This game set the tone for what was to come; the team went on an unbeaten run after that game seeing us beat Cabinteely, Dundrum, Ballybrack and Lakelands again. The lads were scoring goals for fun Ben who likes to play up front pitched in with some vital goals, Jack is lightning fast and on his day nobody can catch him he scored many a goal by chasing the ball down and never giving up. We came unstuck at home to Joeys were we had our own version of the infamous beach ball incident between Sunderland and Liverpool, as a ball ran on the pitch and stopped the match ball enabling the opposition striker to run on and score. We lost our first game of the season, but in fairness to the team they all were either sick or just recovering from a bug , but no excuses we got on with it and a difficult away game to Cabinteely was to follow, we drew the game and kept our first clean sheet of the season a man of the match performance from Hugh being the highlight of the game, the weather conspired against us and most of our games were getting called off, eventually we played Dundrum on an all weather pitch, a game we narrowly lost 3:2 goals from Ciaran and Neil. Our last game before Christmas was at home to Ballybrack we won the game the highlight of the day was seeing Josh and Daniel getting their first goals for the club, Ben showed his skill playing up front and finishing a move with great skill, Conor played a great game in midfield his close control of the ball is superb.

The lads are having all become great friends and are progressing into a great team. Their achievements this season should not be underestimated. As reward for their efforts on the pitch we have been promoted fro C1 to B, throughout the season we have received many compliments from opposing mangers and referees. The guys behaviour both on and off the pitch has been magnificent and both Adrian and I are very proud to be their managers. The team play the game in the right way and our motto has been and will always be “to enjoy ourselves no matter what”

We would like to thank the parents for their help throughout the season so far and look forward to the second half of the season with a great sense of excitement

Derek & Adrian