St Brendan’s Park add to their underage honours by winning the Youth Cup final against Listowel Celtic

St Brendan’s Park 3

Listowel Celtic 1

St Brendan’s Park make a habit of winning competitions at this age level and they made an addition to their silverware cabinet on Sunday evening at Mounthawk Park after lifting the Jimmy Falvey Memorial Cup with a hard-earned win over Listowel Celtic.

In a fiercely competitive game referee Adrien Quirke was kept busy with a lot of aggressive confrontations by both sides, but he handled the game very competently issuing a few yellow cards when they were merited.

The Park came into this game as favourites but they had to graft hard to get the better of a very spirited Listowel Celtic side.

The Tralee side had a lot of early possession but Listowel went ahead in the 17th minute when The Park were caught on the break and Marcus Connolly got past a defender. His first shot was smothered but The Park goalkeeper but when the ball broke loose Connolly managed to poke the ball to the net.

The Park equalised in the 30th minute with the excellent Mohamed Abdullah obtaining possession outside the box and he cut in and drilled his shot low into the far corner of the net.

The Tralee side went ahead seven minutes later after a corner kick the ball dropped in the goalmouth among a forest of players and a Ciaran Kavanagh shot deflected into the net.

Listowel began the second half on the front foot and after clever build up play it looked as if Keelan Moloney was going to score but he was denied by a absolutely wonderful save by Park goalkeeper Luke O’Regan blocking a ferocious shot from six yards.

As the half moved on both sides used their benches and an inspired substitution by The Park’s manager Robert Powell bringing on Shane Crossan proved to be a masterstroke. Shortly after coming on he was played in by Zack Garvey and he finished to the net to insure his side lifted the cup.

Listowel did their best to try and pull a goal back but The Park played the game at their own pace and ran out worthy winners at the end.

The biggest cheer of the day went to Mohamed Abdullah who flicked a back heel over his own head to get past a defender. He had a fantastic game up front for The Park taking on defenders all the time and he was a thorn on the side of Listowel Celtic side for the entire game.

THE PARK: Luke O’Regan, Aaron Powell, Cian Kavanagh, Finn O’Neill, Justin O’Sullivan, James Fisher, Jack Barrett, Denys Paunyl, Mohamed Abdullah, Jack Slattery, Zac Garvey. Subs: Shane Crossan, Ryan McMahon, Andreg Bogdanovic, Salious Sow.

LISTOWEL CELTIC: Mikey Fealy, Conor Fealy, Brian Enright, Georgie O’Donnell, Tommy Carty, Ryan O’Rourke, Marcus Connolly, Keegan Moloney, Bobby Wood, Ciaran Clarke, Gael Geber. Subs: Stephen Meaney, Alfie Dineen, Esteban Maggi, Denis McMahon, Ruane Linnane, Tristan Barry.