Thanks to Gavin for compiling the report
Venue: St Patricks College Ballymena
Date: 17/01/15
Event: U10 North Antrim Indoor Hurling League
Today saw the first week of the very important North Antrim U10 Indoor League. The draw resulted in Brid Og being drawn in one of the toughest groups, with our opponents consisting of Loughiel, Bredagh, Creggan, All Saints Ballymena, Rossa and St Patricks. On the day Loughiel, Rossa and St Patricks failed to field. This played havoc with the fixtures and resulted in some quick rearranging of the schedule. It was agreed that a bye would be given for matches against teams which failed to field.
Our first game was against Bredagh and the Brid Og team were slow to start. However after some encouragement the fire seemed to take hold and the team started to perform as a unit. This was a hard fought end to end game which resulted in a draw. At one stage the Bredagh keeper breached the semi-circle which should have resulted in a penalty for Brid Og, however the referee failed to notice and the game ended in a 0-0 draw.
The next game involved an encounter with All Saints. Brig Og dominated the game from the outset and both Eoin and Zack managed to breech the All Saints defence and place the sliotar in the back of the goal. This game finished Brid Og 2 All Saints 0. This game saw great performances from all players with Jack, Connor and James putting in a solid performance throughout. Liam narrowly missed a penalty as it struck the post and skidded along the goal line, unfortunately a defender managed to flick the sliotar to safety.
The final game in the schedule involved a game against Creggan. This team had hurled brilliantly in their games thus far and had managed to defeat Bredagh. The players were reminded of the importance of this game and were encouraged by mentors and parents alike. This had the desired effect and again Brid Og dominated this game with both Pearse and David finding the back of the net. One of which was a well taken penalty by Pearse. Young Liam and Zack also managed to get on the score sheet in what was a fantastic game. This game even provided an opportunity for young James McCarney to get a run out, despite being only 6 and not expecting to play he performed brilliantly.
There are some very important points to note from today’s game, firstly the Brid Og team were the only team not to be defeated on the day and the only team which did not concede a single score to any of its opponents. 4 of the players today were only 8 and had no hesitation about stepping up an age group. If the our calculations are correct this performance will place us at the top of this group and into Division 1 for the next round – we will await confirmation of this from the event organisers early next week. This is a truly fantastic achievement for this young team who should be proud of their performance today, the mentors are certainly proud of their performance. Thanks to Darren for helping with the team today and to the parents for travelling and providing much needed support.
Team:
Conor, David, Eoin, Jack, James K, James McC, Liam, Pearse, Zack
