It was a bad start to the new year for our U16s, who were second best on Saturday morning to a good Celtic team.

It was a very scrappy start for Ballyhar, who rushed passes and were under pressure for most of the first half. Celtic took the lead 10 mins in and doubled their lead 5 mins later from the penalty spot. Ballyhar relied on their counter attacking led by Anthony Cremin and the impressive Lee Crillio down the wings, who created a few chances but just failed to test the Celtic Keeper. At the back, Marcus Clifford and Conrad Long were busy all game with 2 strong and fast Celtic forwards to contend with. A few costly mistakes, and a penalty saw the home side take a 3 nil lead into the halftime break. H/T 3-0

Ballyhar barely got to grips with the changes made at the half, as Celtic piled on more pressure right from the kick off by scoring a 4th goal inside the first minute of the 2nd half. Eoghan O'Sullivan brought good energy to the Ballyhar midfield and nearly got on the end of 2 chances with his strong running down the right with Davin Quilter very unlucky not get a flick on a Cremin free-kick to get us back in tge game. But as the half wore on Celtic just put better passing together and scored 1 more goals to finish the game off. The closest Ballyhar came to scoring was a great run and shot from Cremin that the keeper pushed onto the post. F/T 5-0

It was one of those games where we just never got going, and were poor against a decent Celtic side.