Great win for Offaly club in U-15 Football Regional Feile Tournament

Na Fianna U15 Footballers showed they are a real force to be reckoned with as they won out the All Ireland Regional Feile blitz tournament in Killinkere, Co Cavan last Saturday.

Comprising players from, Ballinagar, Raheen and Clodiagh Gaels, the Killeigh parish underage amalgamation won their first 2 group games to secure their place in the Cup semi finals with a game to spare and then hammered their opponents to secure big wins in both the Semi Final and Final. Na Fianna had secured their place in this tournament by winning the Offaly Div 2 Feile title earlier this year.

In the first group game Na Fianna faced Glencarmanorhamilton from Leitrim and Na Fianna were quick out of the blocks opening the scoring with 2 points inside the first minute from Harry Fleming & Mark Dunne which was the difference between the sides at the break with Na Fianna leading by 0-04 to 0-02 and a further 2 points to 1 in favour of Na Fianna in the second half secured a first win on a scoreline of 0-06 to 0-03.

In the second group game Na Fianna were pitted against St Kevin's from Wicklow and in a one sided affair Na Fianna turned a half time lead of 0-03 to no score into a full time winning result of 0-05 to no score.

This meant Na Fianna were now through to the Cup Semi Final as group winners with a game to spare so could relax and take their foot off the pedal in their final group game against local side Cuchulain's from Cavan so using the opportunity to rotate their squad in what was a dead rubber fixture and the concession by Na Fianna of their first goals gave the local side a half time advantage of 2-02 to 0-03 which they maintained in the second half as Na Fianna lost their first game by 2-07 to 0-04.

Attention now turned to the Cup semi-final which was delayed for about an hour due to a referee shortage and in this Na Fianna came up against Dunsanny of Meath who will not have fond memories of teams in the Killeigh parish as it was their adult side that Ballinagar beat in the Leinster Club Junior Final last December.

While Na Fianna came through the group without scoring a goal they more than made up for it in the semi-final, raising their first green flag inside the first minute, scored by Mark Dunne followed by 2 more before the break by Cathal Cuskelly and Noah Condron so at half time Na Fianna had one foot in the final as they led by 3-01 to 0-02.

There was no let up in the goal scoring in the second half by Na Fianna as they added 2 more including a spectacular pile driver into the top left corner of the net by joint captain Ethan Henry along with another from Mark Dunne as Na Fianna ran out comfortable winners by 5-05 to 1-02 with the Dunsany goal a consolation effort coming in stoppage time.

The delay in the semi-final meant very little time for rest as a quick turnaround was necessary for the final in which Na Fianna were pitted against the host club Killinkere from Cavan who had reached the Ffinal winning all 4 of their games.

In the final Na Fianna carried through their goal scoring exploits from the semi-final as they got off to a dream start with another first minute goal, this time scored by Cathal Cuskelly and while dealt a blow mid way through the half with the other joint captain Callum Grehan picking up a black card, Na Fianna did not drop their heads, grabbing their second goal in stoppage time - scored by Mark Dunne following a perfectly executed pass from without doubt player of the tournament Thomas Lynch adding to his own point moments before so at the break Na Fianna were in control leading by 2-02 to 0-01.

With the winning post in sight Na Fianna did not let up in the second half scoring a further 1-02 to 0-01 easily winning on a full time score of 3-04 to 0-02 with the third goal scored by Noah Condron following a blistering run in from the right wing by Mark Dunne.

There was great scenes of joy as Na Fianna joint-captains Callum Grehan and Ethan Henry were presented with the winning shield in front of the large band of supporters who had travelled up to support them. This was a great team effort over the course of the day and well done to all players and mentors involved

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NA FIANNA (Squad): Eoin McLachlain, Oisin Dolan, Ben Wallace, Tom Dunne, Harry Fleming (0-01+ 0-01), Darragh Staunton, Thomas Lynch (0-01), Callum Grehan (0-01), Ethan Henry (1-00), Kaiden Monaghan (0-02 + 0-01+0-01 + 0-01 +0-01), Adam Kehoe (0-01 + 0-01 + 0-01), Cathal Cuskelly (1-01 + 1-01), Mark Dunne (0-02+0-01 +2-00 + 1-00), Fionn McGrath, Fionnan Connolly (0-01+0-01), Oisin Whelan, Tomas McFadden, Rian Duke, Noah McDonnell, Noah Condron (1-02 +1-00), Conor Dunne, Harry O’Meara, Darragh McAndrew (0-01), Kyle Kelly (0-01), Kaiden Dunne, Kyle Stronge & Kevin Dunne.