U21 2008 E/K winners

Dr, Crokes 1-15 Rathmore 0-10 (Kilcummin Fri 18thJuly)

We retained our U21 title with a good eight point victory over Rathmore at Kilcummin. Having the advantage of the strong breeze in the first half was a big factor as our opponents had a mountain to climb at half time as they were ten points in arrears. The breeze however does not put the ball between the posts for a team and our lads must be applauded for the way they took their scores in the first quarter at which stage we led by 1-7 to 0-1. Rathmore did defend better in the second quarter and restricted us to four points and managed to score three minors themselves. Even though our opponents outscored us by two points in the second half we were never in danger of losing the game.

We had seven points to Rathmore's one in the first seven minutes of the game and when Ruairi Mangan sent a scorcher to the net a minute later we were well on the road to victory. For the remainder of the half our opponents defended stoutly and made scoring less easy, allowing us just four points to their three in this fifteen minutes.

Rathmore had three points without reply in the first seven minutes of the second half. We were guilty of some bad wides during this period. The teams exchanged points in the next few minutes and then we more or less closed out the game in the next five minutes with three unanswered points. We failed to score in the last quarter but did bring on five substitutes at this stage. This is not to say that our replacements played poorly but rather that the momentum of our game suffered. Our opponents had the last two scores of the game, two points in the last five minutes to leave us winners by eight points.

This was a great team performance. One would however have to signal out, Mike Moloney, Fionn Fitzgerald and Barra O'Connell in defence, our two midfielders Daithi Casey and Johnny Buckley who gave us superiority in this sector and Jamie Doolan, Kieran O'Leary and Ruairi Mangan in attack.

Dr Crokes Best Player;  Jamie Doolan.

Team and Scorers;  Alan Kelly; Tommy Ryan, Mike Moloney, Fionn Fitzgerald; Chris Egan, Barra O'Connell, Gavin Tucker; Johnny Buckley, Daithi Casey; Brian Looney 0-1, Kieran O'Leary(capt) 0-3(0-1free), Shane O'Neill; Denis Galvin 0-2, Ruairi Mangan 1-1, Jamie Doolan 0-8(0-2frees).   Subs;  Philip O'Connor, Jonathon Clarke, P.J.Lawlor, David Neeson and Kieran Ward.

 Q/ Final result Dr Crokes 6-14 Glenflesk 3-02 (10/02/08)(at Lewis Rd)

Even though the score would suggest that this was a one sided game and there was no doubt that we were by far the better team Glenflesk nevertheless never gave up. They gave our mentors some concern in the second half as they pierced our defence on three occasions for goals which would have been disastrous in a close game.We however aided by the breeze had scored five goals in the first half, complemented by ten points which gave us an unassailable lead at the interval.

With the elements in our favour we scored freely in the first half and went in at the break 5-10 to 0-2 in front.

The second half was a much closer affair which our opponents won on a score of 3-0 to 1-4.Even though it was worrying that we conceded three goals it was still a good start to our campaign. We ran out winners in the end on a scoreline of 6-14 to 3-2.

Dr Crokes Best Player;  Denis Galvin.

Team and Scorers; Alan Kelly; Tommy Ryan, Mike Moloney, John Payne; Fionn Fitzgerald, Ian Howard, Gavin Tucker 1-2; Johnny Buckley 0-2, Daithi Casey 0-1(free); David O'Leary, Brian Looney, Ruairi Mangan; Denis Galvin 2-3, Kieran O'Leary 2-3(0-2frees), Shane O'Neill 1-2. Subs; Philip O'Connor 0-1, John Bartlett, Jonathon Clarke, Michael McMahon.

Semi-Final------  Dr Crokes  4-16---------  Spa  2-6 (Played in Lewis Rd on Saturday 16th Feb)

We qualified for the semi-final of the Competition with a comprehensive 4-16 to 2-6 victory over Spa. Aided by the breeze in the first half we built up a 3-8 to 0-5 interval lead. Spa got very much into the game in the third quarter, at the end of which they had reduced the deficit to seven points.We rallied again in the last quarter, scoring 1-6 without reply for a good victory. The prolific scoring of Kieran O'Leary, Jamie Doolan and Brian Looney who scored 2-13 between them was instrumental in taking us to the final of the competition.

Even though Spa had the first score of the game,a point in the 4th minute we soon got on top and hit 2-2 without reply. We scored three points to our opponents one in the next few minutes to lead 2-5 to 0-2 at the end of the first quarter. The game was closely contested in the second quarter both sides scoring three points but we also added a goal, a penalty clinically finished by Jamie Doolan to give us a 3-8 to 0-5 interval lead.

Spa were well on top in the third quarter scoring 2-1 and showing up a few weaknesses in our defence. We managed 0-3 in the same period to leave just seven points between the teams. The last fifteen minutes belonged to us as we scored an unanswered 1-6 for a 4-16 to 2-6 win.

Dr Crokes Best Player; Brian Looney.

Team and Scorers; Alan Kelly; Fionn Fitzgerald, Mike Moloney, John Payne; David O'Leary, Ian Howard, Gavin Tucker 0-1; Johnny Buckley, Daithi Casey 0-1; Brian Looney 0-5, Ruairi Mangan 1-0, Shane O'Neill; Denis Galvin 0-1, Kieran O'Leary 1-4(0-3frees), Jamie Doolan 2-4(1-0pen).Subs; Jonathon Clarke, John Bartlett, Philip O'Connor, Chris Egan.