Our U12 A team had a great result on Saturday afternoon when they took down Premier opposition in the 1st round of the Cup. Despite being down a few players, the lads played brilliantly for 60 mins with every squad member playing an important piece in the win.

Ballyhar had the lions share of possession in the game and in Adam Fleming, and Killian O'Sullivan posed massive problems for MEK from the start. The Ballyhar defence was rock solid with Callum Templeman, Daithi Allen, and the outstanding Noah Browne playing at centre half instead of his usual spot between the posts. That spot was taken by one of the U11 goalkeepers, Josh Nelligan, who did extremely well all game. Luke Bartlett and Alex Finn got on plenty of ball, with Jack Duggan and Rian Comerford also doing well at this level.

After a goal less 1st half, Ballyhar needed to make their good play count, but it was an outstanding save from Nelligan that really sparked things into action in the 2nd half. With Fleming making great work down the right, he won a corner, swung it in himself, where Browne met it perfectly to send it into the top corner of the net. MEK pushed hard for an equaliser, but the defence stood strong, and with 10 mins left, Nelligan gathered a shot and pumped the ball long where it bounced over an MEK players head and onto the waiting Alex Finn down the right. With the keeper out of his goal a few times previous, he decided to try his luck from 30 yrds out and saw his sweet strike lob the retreating keeper and just under the crossbar for the crucial 2nd goal.

MEK now had nothing to lose and lay seige on the Ballyhar goal. They won a free kick on the left with 5 mins left and did well to hammer the ball into the net to make it 2-1. But that was the way it finished after a fantastic display from all the lads in Blue against a premier division side.  MOTM: Noah Browne