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HHFC 0 – Portmarnock 2
On a warm afternoon with the game delayed by 2 hours due to ref mix up things looked ominous for our under 18 Premier side. Due to an injury crisis and work commitments we took the pitch with just 10 lads against a good footballing HHFC side and gave an exhibition in organisation, game management work rate and heart. Each of the 10 players gave their all with no little skill in a game that was relentless on an astro pitch. The first 45 was quite even with Portmarnock edging the better of the chances. So it was not undeserved when 5 minutes before half time we broke the deadlock. The ever industrious Ross Waters won the ball back high up the field and a neat pass between centre half and right back by Rory Walsh sent left midfielder Conor Ryan away down the left and his first time cross along the 6 yard line was met by right midfielder Gavin Johnson who nipped in between the HHFC sweeper and keeper to poke the ball home.
In the 2nd half HHFC upped the tempo and began to dominate possession but the lads kept their shape allowed the home team to play back and forth in front of them. It was great to see the communication between the lads encouraging each other and letting players know where they needed to be. As the half wore on we began to get more and more breaks. Ross up front was winning every header and chasing every ball, bullying both HHFC centre backs and whichever full back was nearest. And from one such effort we got a corner with 5 mins to go. Conor hit the ball with pace and accuracy along the 6 yard line and centre back Evan Millerick rose to power his header home and seal the game.
It was a measure of how we played that keeper Mark Devereux only had 2 or 3 saves to make but make them he did and his handling and distribution were very good throughout. In front of him the back four marshalled by Adam Connell and Evan in the middle with Sean Berrell and Jason Derham in the full back slots were organised, worked hard and never let their concentration slip. In midfield captain Adam Moran typified the heroic nature of the effort, organising and controlling the centre of the park intelligently while playing the whole game with sore shins. Alongside him Rory showed his usual array of skills but matched that with a great work effort. The two wide midfielders Conor and Gavin gave a perfect exhibition of stretching the pitch when we had the ball and tucking in and making us compact when we didn’t. Finally the afore-mentioned Ross up front played the lone striker role perfectly, winning every ball that came his way, holding it up so we could get out and working their whole back four.
Man of the match is an impossible selection as there were 10 of them.
