Two wins for high flying Southern Gaels/Fr Dalton"s

Southern Gaels/Fr Dalton"s under-14s recorded two wins in the league recently and they now have maximum points from three games to lead Division 2 of the League. A long journey to Whitehall did not deter the Athlone/Ballymore combination from putting in a top class display to emerge victorious with 2 points to spare after a ding-dong battle with Ringtown. This was followed up with a comprehensive display against Cullion in Pairc Chiarain, Athlone, when the team put in an excellent second-half performance to win by 10 points after trailing at the interval by a single point. Ringtown 3-11 Sth Gaels/Fr Dalton"s 4-10 On a pitch that defied the continuously bad weather conditions over the previous 3 days, Ringtown and visitors Sth. Gaels/ Fr. Dalton"s served up an enthralling encounter which yielded 28 scores. The home team took the early lead with a goal and 3 points through the wizardry of Ian Nea and Darren Kilcoyne which completely left the young Athlone/Ballymore boys at sixes and sevens. However an astute switch that brought Christopher Keogh into the half-back line yielded quick results as a more plentiful supply of ball went in the direction of Fionn Dowd, Liam Leahy and Killian Gateley. Leahy latched onto a pass from Jamie Anders to find the net and within a minute he reacted first time to stroke the ball over the bar. Jamie Anders and Liam O"Rourke began to win a lot of possession and chances were created for Dowd to add 3 points. Ringtown hit back to collect four unanswered points and only for the excellent goalkeeping of Breen Elliott and defending of Killian Coyle, Sean Baker and Jonathan Farrell, the situation could have been a lot worse. In the final 5 minutes of the half Fionn added an excellent goal and a point to leave the Sth Westmeath team leading by 1 at the break (2-5 to 1-7). The distraction of the local adult team training under the guidance of Westmeath"s only hurling All Star David Kilcoyne seemed to spur the home team into action at the start of the second half. They were quick out of the blocks and had scored 1-3 within the opening 10 minutes. Again, team manager Enda Dowd made a switch that yielded dividends by moving Jamie Anders closer to goal and he responded with 2 excellent goals. Anders also added a 65 and a free for good measure. Fionn Dowd (2) and Ben Maxwell added further points. In the final 10 minutes good defending by Shane Halvin and especially Odhran Daly kept Ringtown to just 1 point. Sth Gaels/Fr Dalton"s 4-9 Cullion 3-2 For the second game in a row the team came from behind to win a very competitive game and were somewhat flattered by the winning margin in the end. Short a number of players, the team was not in any way weakened by the positional changes that followed. Indeed Liam O"Rourke can be very satisfied with his play at full-back and he got huge assistance from Jonathan Farrell and Ciaran Connolly, who time and again cleared their lines when the pressure mounted. Cullion, through the efforts of Ger Gillen, John Baker and others, took a four point lead twice during the opening half. On each occasion the home team pegged them back quickly through fast release of ball into the lively forward and Ben Maxwell scored an excellent goal in the 15th minute to add to points from Fionn Dowd and Jamie Anders (2). The half-time score of Cullion 2-2 Sth Gaels/Fr Dalton"s 1-3 was just about correct. In the second half, the southerners dominated play adding goals from Douglas O"Shea, Adrian Garvey and Dowd. Points also began to flow and the artistry of Dowd yield a further 3 scores. The score of the game came form the hurl of centre-back Killian Coyle. Jamie Anders also chipped in with 2 excellent long-range frees. Austin Murphy again excelled at winning possession in the centre forward berth while Christopher Keogh and Sean Kilgariff won the midfield battle. The switch of Douglas O"Shea into the forward line added a lot to that area and his goal was expertly taken. This was again a very good performance and the panel is really showing the benefits of regular training sessions. Panel for both games: Breen Elliott, Sean Baker, Liam O"Roarke, Jonathan Farrell, Douglas O"Shea, Killian Coyle (capt), Shane Galvin, Christopher Keogh, Sean Kilgariff, Jamie Anders, Fionn Dowd, Ciaran Connolly, Austin Murphy, Liam Leahy, Killian Gateley, Ben Maxwell, Adrian Garvey, Odhran Daly, Jonathan Keogh, Dermot Treacy, Iarliath Daly,