Éire Óg Greystones
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Weekly Notes - 12th July 2006

The scoreline paints a very misleading picture and does scant justice to Baltinglass’s brave effort in an exciting game in which there was no comfort in a substantial lead and dominance in play was transitory. Indeed, but for the heroic goalkeeping of Aisling Leonard, it might have been an altogether different story. Some of the scores bordered on the sublime and would have added lustre to any arena from Munich to Croke Park. The two Éire Óg "insurance" goals, in particular, were quite spectacular. The first resulted when a beautiful cross was met on the volley by a coming-from-nowhere international soccer player, Emily Hanney. The second came when a Laurie Aherne shot with a curving trajectory, which would have evoked envy in a baseball pitcher, completely deceived the Baltinglass keeper. Caoilfhionn Deeney, who postponed her trip to the Gaeltacht, played a key role in the victory and Jade Coffey’s decision to pass up a ticket to "Take That" was certainly to Éire Óg’s benefit. Luka Hargan who played exceptionally well at corner-back was ably assisted by Deirdre Walsh. Louise Young and Lorna Fusciardi did trojan work at midfield. All in all, a very good team performance.

After a long hibernation the minor footballers returned to action on Wednesday night against the locals in Blessington. Leaving Greystones they knew they were going to be up against it - Blessington are the 2005 champions – and so it proved. Éire Óg won 0-8 to 0-6. No goals! Low scoring! Surely a dull game? Far from it. This was actually an exciting, closely fought score for score contest full of honest endeavour and laced with not a little skill. Altogether it was a game which provided a satisfying evening’s sport.

The wide count from both sides was high – normally a cause of frustration for mentors and supporters alike. However, as the inaccuracy could be attributed more to the good defending of both sets of backs than to the insufficiently tutored boots of the forwards, one accepted it as an integral part of the game.

Congratulations to Conor Daly and Leon Hargan who were both members of the u-15 football panel against Dublin. Conor caught the avaricious eye of the opposition and but for our sports "parish based" ethos, might now be the subject of transfer negotiations! Leon came on as a substitute and showed himself to be a worthy member of the panel.

Excitement-induced palpitations were the order of the day at the u-14 hurling match against Glenealy at home on Wednesday night. An extremely close-scoring game with no let-up in tension as one team, then the other took the lead. Glenealy’s big full-forward was unstoppable in possession and scored freely in the 1st half. The 2nd half tactic of playing him from the front – in this Michael Walsh played a key role- starved him of possession and was the key to Éire Óg’s 1 point victory.

A last-minute 25 metre free, to the up to then unerring free-taker, had us resigned to a draw but , mirabile dictu, the ball hit the post and was cleared. Dan O’Neill played well in goals and James Smullen and Shane Nolan were prominent in a hard-working back division.

The Éire Óg cause seemed to have suffered a fatal blow when Gary Elliott and Karl Devin were forced to retire with leg injuries – thankfully the effects were short-term – but the team redoubled its efforts and never allowed the opposition to take the upper hand.

You may well ask "What about the Intermediate game against Stratford, the Cúl football camp, the u-10 game against Newtown, the Golf Classic and so on?"