In almost perfect conditions on Saturday morning, our U12's travelled to Ballyduff to grind out a well deserved away win .

It was a real battle from the start with both sides testing each other and only due to some bad luck and fine defending  we would have seen a few more goals. A much changed Ballyhar defence saw Marcus O'Sullivan come in and spray the ball around and he was well able to turn defence into attack with his vision and his inch perfect balls to the likes of Fabian Mortek and Jack Cooper who were  prowling the wings looking to set up chances. One of the best opportunities in the first half saw Sean Evans shoot just inches over. Ballyhar didn't have it all their own way and had to scrap hard in all areas of the pitch in this very entertaining game. They took a hold of the game late in the first half forcing four corners one after anouther ,clearly unsettling the home side who knew they had a game on their hands. Brian Evans started the game in a new role and was extremely creative working hard with Jack Sheehy. The first half ended scoreless but had plenty of entertainment and Ballyhar were just shading it. H/T 0-0


The second half saw more good attacking football from both sides, with Ballyhar being made work hard in all areas of the pitch and stuck to their task. It was a great defensive effort from Ballyhar, with Dermot Nealon solid at centre-back and Noah Finn not giving LB many scraps of a chance. Gavin Sheehan was confident in goal and well worth his clean sheet. Michéal Griffin came on and ran hard at the LB defence with Dylan O'Sullivan coming on and injecting some energy into a now tiring team. Then with less than 5 minutes remaining, it was looking like the spoils would be shared, Ballyhar sprung a counter attack that started with a quick throw-in on the left by Noah Finn. He found Jack Cooper who took on his man at speed and delivered a fantastic cross into the LB box. Fabian Mrotek ghosted in at the back post and bundled the ball into the net. 1 -0 to Ballyhar. LB piled on the pressure for the  remainder of the game but they were unable to get past the strong Ballyhar defence.
F/T 0-1

Best for Ballyhar today was Marcus O'Sullivan, Jack Cooper and Fabien Mortek.
We would like to take this opportunity to Thank our hosts LB Rovers and give them our best wishes for the  remainder of the campaign.