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U12's Make Indoor League Final

UNDER 12’S MAKE FINAL Cushendun under 12’s made it through to the Division 2 indoor hurling final yesterday, after putting together a string of terrific performances in Ballymoney. A tense opening match with North Belfast outfit St Endas was won with a score of 2-1 following two cracking goals from Harry Kilgore and Conor Bannon. Next up was Dunloy and after we got into our stride we overcame the challenge from the boys in green and gold with a score of 4-0 , another terrific performance by Kilgore senior who scored all four goals. With two wins under our belt the tension was growing as we came to our next match against the highly fancied Loughgiel Shamrocks side. This was a cracking match and no quarter was given. We went ahead with an early strike from Harry Kilgore, but loughgiel soon levelled with a fine strike that gave James Morgan in goals no chance. Harry Kilgore put us ahead when he netted from close range and we thought the points were in the bag but the Shamrocks made a few changes and came back to level the match with only a couple of minutes remaining. Both teams were giving their all, Conor Mc Hugh in the back line played fantastically and did some great covering to prevent another Shamrocks goal. David Kilgore and Leo Morgan were coming under much pressure in midfield as the clock was running down. Much ‘encouragement’ was coming from the sideline from the coaches and supporters when eventually Leo hit the target to give us a thrilling win. At this stage we were looking good and the only other unbeaten team was Glenshesk. Next up for us was Rossa. Although the score would suggest a close encounter, we were always in control with Conor Mc Hugh and James Morgan clearing everything Rossa could throw at us. David Kilgore picked up a knock in this match and was replaced by Gerard O Hara who slotted well into midfield and thwarted the Rossa onslaught. We won the game 4-2 with goals from Conor Mc Hugh, Harry Kilgore and a double from Leo Morgan. Our second last match was against local rivals Cushendall. Victory against the Dall would ensure qualification for the final. The pressure was on and the boys were taking it very seriously. From the throw in, the Dall looked dangerous and James pulled off a couple of acrobatic saves before we eventually broke up the field with a counter attack involving some great link up play between Conor Bannon/ Harry Kilgore and Conor Mc Hugh before Leo drove the ball low and hard into the corner for a deserved equaliser. We went ahead with another great strike from the in form Harry Kilgore, and thought we were set for victory when James Morgan was penalised and Cushendall scored the resulting penalty despite James’best efforts. Another thrilling climax to this game but no more goals were forthcoming so both teams had to settle for a draw. After few calculations by our number cruncher ,MK, we realised that we had qualified and the initial disappointment felt by the boys after the draw with Cushendall was soon replaced with joy in the knowledge that we had qualified. Our Last match was against the impressive Glenshesk side and it was a bit of a dead rubber so we made a few changes and tried players in a few different positions. We discovered that Leo is not a goalkeeper!!! The rest of the lads played well but eventually Glenshesk won this last match. This was a great team performance today, everyone played very well and did the jobs that the coaches asked them. One performance that does need to be mentioned is that of Harry Kilgore who in his last year at under 12 and scored nine goals today, well done Harry and we need another top performance next week with the rest of the boys. The only disappointment was hearing the news that our other team narrowly failed to make the Division four final in Ballymena. All reports suggest that they played hard and were unlucky in several matches and indeed conceded a very crucial and very late goal against Dungiven which proved to be very costly. A full report from our Ballymena reporter will appear later. Next Saturday we play the final in Ballymena Seven Towers leisure Centre at 1.00. We will be playing Glenshesk so there is no room for complacency if any existed! This is a great achievement and everyone in the Club is proud of the boys not only for their hurling ability but their sporting conduct which has been excellent.