Impressive Tullamore too strong for brave St Vincent's

A VERY impressive Tullamore showed that another talented generation of young footballer is emerging in the town as they captured the U-13 Football Championship with a comprehensive win over St Vincent's in Faithful Fields on Sunday.

EJ U-13 Football Championship final

Tullamore 2-15

St Vincent's 2-4

The Daingean parish outfit gave it their best shot on the day. They battled very hard, were extremely honest and they played some good football but just came up against a superior side, who clicked on the biggest day of the year, especially in the first half..

Tullamore played some exceptional football for such a young age, mixing a fair physicality with fast movements and a mixture of short and long passes. They regularly got within shooting range and had the game in the bag at half time when they led by 2-8 to 1-1.

Tullamore were strong all ove the field with their defence doing their primary job very efficiently. Some of their attacking football was a pleasure to witness as Jayden Daly and the outstanding Daniel Bourke dominating midfield and Conor Rigney, Sam Heffernan and Daniel Holton on fire up front.

St Vincent's also played some good football, with a handful of very good individual displays and their work rate in the second half commanded respect - a few of this St Vincent's panel had played alongside several of the Tullamore side on the group that lost the U-13 hurling final to Shamrocks a week earlier.

Tullamore came flying out of the blocks and a Conor Rigney goal after just 37 seconds put them on the road to victory. Tullamore got two top quality goals in the first half with their second from his brother Cian – the Rigney's are two thirds of triplets along with a sister – also out of the top drawer in the 11th minute.

That gave Tullamore a 2-4 to no scoere lead and they could have been further ahead as they almost got in for other goals and could have got a couple of points.

St Vincent's deserve huge credit for the way they dug deep after this as it would have been very easy for young players to drop their heads. Aaron Mangan broke through for an excellent 16th minute goal and they defended very bravely to try and keep Tullamore away. Yet the half time score was a fair reflection of the difference between the sides in the first half.

You also had to admire St Vincent's for the way they chased a losing cause in the second half. They had beaten Tullamore in the league earlier in the year and they showed that they were a very decent side as they upped their work rate all over the field.

They tackled tenaciously and made Tullamore work much harder for things than they had to for the first quarter. At the same time, the deficit was always going to be too much to haul in and Tullamore were never in true danger of losing.

There was a brief few moments when it could have got interesting. Tullamore were 2-11 to 1-3 ahad when the impressive Conor Sullivan got in for a 46th minute goal after poor defending. St Vincent's had a couple of half goal chances each side of that and had they ended up in the net, Tullamore would have been under pressure.

As it was, they continued to win good ball in defence where Niall Lambe really stood up to be counted in the second half. The gap was still eight points as it entered the closing five minutes and Tullamore rattled over the closing three points for a convincing win.

MAN OF THE MATCH

Daniel Holton (Tullamore): A handful of contenders, all in the blue of Tullamore. Conor Rigney showed some delightful skill and fine opportunism up front and Sam Heffernan led the attack very well from centre forward while Niall Lambe was immense in their defence. My choice is wing forward Daniel Holton. He scored regularly and nailed some frees when Tullamore needed a score to settle them. He foraged for dirty ball and had a fine game.

THE SCORERS

Tullamore: Conor Rigney 1-3, Daniel Holton 0-7 (3f), Cian Rigney 1-0, Sam Heffernan 0-2, Eoghan Stewart, Jayden Daly and Tom Lynch 0-1.

St Vincent's: Conor Sullivan 1-1, Aaron Mangan 1-0, Robbie Minnock, Thomas Cassidy and Hugh Kelly (f) 0-1 each.

THE TEAMS

TULLAMORE: Killuian Humphrey; Devon Donoghue, Niall Lambe, Conor Clarke; Fionn Daly-Kane,Cian Rigney, Eoghan Stewart; Jayden Daly, Daniel Bourke; Martin Ward, Sam Heffernan, Daniel Holton; Tom Lynch, Conor Rigney, Tim Cunningham. Subs – Tom Walsh for Donoghue (50m), Andy Hynes for Cian Rigney (62m).

ST VINCENT'S: Kevin Dunne; Padraig Johnson, Daithi Boland, Joseph Scally; Matthew Scally, Scott Martin, Sean Goodings; Aaron Mangan, Robbie Minnock; Alex Cummins, Thomas Cassidy, Adam Geraghty; Jake Delaney, Hugh Kelly, Conor Sullivan. Subs – Harvey Jo Hanley for Johnson (34m), Finn Longworth for Cummins (37m).

Referee – Ger Keyes (Shamrocks).