Galway celebrate Kennedy Cup success
For the second time in four years, Galway are Kennedy Cup champions. The annual U14 tournament involving every league in the country took place in Limerick last week and it culminated in Dave Silke's charges emerging 1-0 winners over North East Region in the final played on Friday afternoon.Matthew Dooley fired home the opening half match winner, to give Galway just their second ever success in the competition.
Now the Tribesmen were certainly involved in a very competitive group where all four teams finished on four points, with a win, draw and loss each. Luckily, Galway emerged winners courtesy of a plus one goal difference and it was the deciding factor in their advancement.
Mind you the competition did not start well, as they fell to a 1-0 defeat against Limerick County in their opening game. Matters improved when Adam Casserly scored in each half to give them a 2-0 victory over Inishowen in game two, before they came from behind to grab a share of the spoils in a 1-1 draw with North Dublin Schoolboys League. On this occasion, a Cian Hanley penalty secured a valuable point that guaranteed their passage to the knock-out stages.
It was from here on that Galway displayed their defensive prowess as goalkeeper Darragh Morris and an impressive back four were to keep three clean sheets in succession as they annexed the coveted title. The quarter-final against Kilkenny finished scoreless, before they emerged 4-3 winners in the penalty shoot-out, as Cian Hanley, Kevin Badarinza, Anton Connors and Jack Farrelly were all spot on, with Morris also playing his part with one crucial save.
In the semi-final, Jack Farrelly tucked away an early first half penalty to give them a 1-0 win over Dublin District Schoolboys League, before Matthew Dooley proved to be the hero with the crucial goal in their 1-0 final victory over North East Region. The victory culminated in a very successful year for the Galway League, as various age groups also won national inter-league titleslast month. Just over a week ago, the Girl's Gaynor Cup side were beaten in their final.
With the game continuing to expand, 17,000 players from U11 to adult are registered with the Galway FA, as 38 teams participate in the local leagues on a weekly basis, with the majority of them having both men's and women's teams.150 competitions are held annually in the various grades and the massive development of numbers in the game is helped by 11 clubs now having their own All Weather pitch and with more in the pipeline.