Our U12s capped off their league season as unbeaten Division 1 Champions, with a good display in beautiful Ballyferriter against a spirited Dingle Bay Rovers.
After a shaky start, Ballyhar gradually settled into the game, with a young Dingle side giving as good as they got. The deadlock was broken after 10 mins when Patrick O'Connor's long-range effort lobed over the keeper to give Ballyhar the lead. 8 minutes later, O'Connor doubled the lead after a well worked move down the left between Callum Templeman & Adam Fleming released O'Connor, who placed his shot across the keeper into the far corner. Dingle were far from out of it, and with their keeper making some fine saves to keep the score at 0-2, they caused plenty of trouble for the Ballyhar defence. H/T 0-2
Despite changes from the bench, Ballyhar started the 2nd half well when Alex Finn scored a free kick from just outside the box. That was followed by a penalty for Ballyhar that was well struck to the net by Brendan Flynn. Then came the Dingle fight back, as Ballyhar got sloppy and lost their shape, and they capitalised straight after the penalty to make it 1-4. 2 minutes later, it was 2-4 when despite a good save from keeper Noah Browne, they found the net again. Ballyhar were rocked, and Dingle turned the tables when they got a 3rd goal and reduced the margin to 3-4 on 55 mins. Ballyhar needed to steady the ship, and it came from Alex Finn, whose determination chasing what looked like a hopeless ball knicked the ball away from between a Dingle defender and the keeper to get his 2nd of the game. 5 mins later, O'Connor got his hat-trick with a curling effort from the edge of the box to make it 3-6. With Noah Browne making a number of other good saves to keep Dingle out, the scoring was finished by a great run from Templeman from inside his own half who finished well to bring down the curtain on a great season.F/T 3-7
Fair play to Dingle, who had a team of U11 players and battled well right to the end. Best for Ballyhar were Luke Bartlett, Adam Fleming, Alex Finn and MOTM Patrick O'Connor. It was a good finish to a fantastic season for this great bunch of lads. They have trained hard all season, and every one of them has improved. To go unbeaten is a great achievement and bodes well for next season.