Apologies to Cian and Ivan on the delay in publishing their Match Reports from the 19th of October!!

Prosperous United V Kildare Town (U12 Boys)

On Saturday 19th October, Kildare Town traveled to Prosperous for an 11:45 kick off. 

From the start Prosperous had a few good chances with one skimming the crossbar. After some good passing Prosperous found the net. After conceding a free outside the box Kildare scored from a deflection off a prosperous defender. 

A few minutes later Prosperous found the net for the second time. Then Prosperous were under some pressure and Kildare managed to score a second goal. 

Kildare were then awarded a penalty and scored from the spot, with our goalie unlucky not to have saved it. 

After half time, Kildare pressed again but Prosperous held out. After being awarded a free kick into the box Prosperous scored a third goal to tie the match again. With Prosperous attacked and with two minutes left after a great through ball, scored after rounding the Kildare keeper to make it 4-3. 

The match finished with every player giving their all. Well done team.

On the back of an 8-1 win away to Athy Town in the league, we then had our first fixture in the SFAI u13 National Cup yesterday on the 19th October. We were drawn against a very strong Premier team, Castle Villa, who recently beat Premier table toppers Kill FC.

While we knew this would be the biggest challenge we faced so far this season, the team had no fear going into the game. The match kicked off at 10.30am in good conditions and we immediately could see we were in with a good chance of winning. The team fought hard and gave nothing away to Castle Villa. After 10 minutes a dangerous ball played into the box was headed on by our captain for the day, Dexter Powell, and Daniel Otobore was the fastest to react and brilliantly hooked the ball high into the net. The team, supporters and coaches erupted with cheers and applause. We had other good chances that their keeper brilliantly saved or that we were unlucky with, we could easily have been 3 or 4 up.

We then came under more pressure by Castle Villa with attacks down the wings and into our penalty box, but our fantastic goalkeeper, Dylan Shiels, was rock solid and dealt with everything thrown at him. Our defence with Patrick Hennessy, David Otobore, Gareth Costello and Padraig O'Brien gave the Villa attackers a torrid time and battled them back at every turn. Gareth was later hit into the face, off the ball, but the referee didn't see it. It would have been a red card for the Villa player and Gareth was substituted with a bloody lip, but he heroically came back on in the second half.

After 14 minutes a fast break by Dextor Powell resulted in a block in the Villa penalty box that Ivan Hannon was first to and finished the ball into the net, 2-0!

But Villa were not going to give up that easily, they continued putting us under pressure and with the last kick of the first half they powered a shot into the far corner giving our keeper no chance.

In the second half our midfielders battled bravely to win the ball back and start our attacks. It was a tough game and during the second half Oisin Barr and Alex Behan both sustained knee and foot injuries and had to be substituted, they gave everything for the team as always.

After 47 minutes, Villa's continued attacking resulted in a goal and the game was now 2-2. But we never gave up. With 5 minutes to go Dextor Powell broke from midfield and shot from outside the box, the ball ricocheted off a Villa defender and past the Villa keeper, 3-2!

For the last few minutes we held off Villa again and again from midfield and they never got another opportunity to find an equaliser. The final whistle went and the lads had just beaten one of the supposedly strongest teams in Kildare and we move onto the next round full of confidence, and ready to train hard in the coming weeks. Well done Team!