MPP SOCCER U15 BOYS INTO LEINSTER LAST 16
Luttrellstown CC 0 By Mr D . Lucas
Maynooth PP 3
Tenacity . Discipline . Talent . The U15 Boys showed all three in their Leinster Cup 2nd round game ( their 3rd in the competition ).
Tenacity
As the teams lined out in Porterstown Park , it was hard not to notice the sheer size difference between the two teams . With captain , Ben Lowings suspended ( sent off ), Sean McDonald led the troops into battle . He ' s not the tallest person ( sorry Sean ) but he played like there was no one out there bigger than him . Moving about the pitch with complete disregard for his own constitution , he showed tenacity is a virtue seldom bested . Some of our other shorter players ( again , sorry lads ) Vlad Macari and Brian Moran also upended ( fairly ) opposition players who were feet taller than them .
Discipline
Some long balls over the top led to a couple of early chances for the opposition , but from then on , the MPP midfield and defence remained completely and utterly disciplined in their tactics . They hunted as a unit , relied on each other and as the game wore on , frustrated their opponents with simple but effective game management .
Talent
On 28 minutes , Dylan Barrett picked up a pass near the edge of the box . Several , twists and feints later , he was at the byline and pulled the ball back to Paul Mathias who picked out an avenue through the advancing bodies to break deadlock . Hungry for more , MPP pressed to win the ball back from the restart . They did just that and it seemed the ball was at the feet of Alan Lanigan for milliseconds before he unleashed a thunderbolt from the edge of the box into the bottom right corner . 2-0 at half time A 3rd and final goal arrived in the 13th minute of the second half . Working the ball out from the back , an incisive pass down the line set the tireless Barrett away who delivered another tantalising ball across the box . Ethan Hennessy was finally rewarded for several great supporting runs and he finished at the far post . In truth , MPP could have had several more goals but an overactive whistle and absurd disregard for the offside rule scuppered chances for Alan Lanigan , Paul Mathias and Paul Bean .
Injuries and yellow cards led to a raft of changes and players operating out of position . Luttrellstown pushed for a goal to get something from the game . With 3 minutes left in normal time , the installation of their new 10m diving platform bore fruit as their main threat performed a Tom Daly-esque flop in the box . His degree of difficulty was low but the judge ( sorry , the referee ) was impressed by his execution and pointed to the penalty spot . Justice was served when Alex Noonan expertly dived at full stretch to his right and pushed the spot kick away . The whistle blew minutes later and MPP had secured their 4th victory of the year .
Man of the Match - Voted for by his team mates In truth , this was the most complete team performance to date for this team but the overwhelming vote for MOTM went to goalkeeper , Alex Noonan . He bossed his box , varied his distribution , cleanly punched clear several corners that came his way , made an outstanding point blank save and of course , that penalty save . He was an exemplar of tenacity , discipline and talent .