U14's Host Belvedere in Irish Cup Semi   17/04/2015

SFAI U-14 Goodson Cup Sem-Final 

It’s a big weekend for the club’s U-14 squad as they host Dublin side, Belvedere FC, in the semi-final of the SFAI Goodson cup at Fahy’s Field on Saturday with kick-off at 2 pm. 

Coley Kelly and Pa Connell’s squad will be hoping they can match last season’s U-14 team and advance to the national final for a second year in a row for the club. Already crowned league winners last week with three games remaining, they warmed up for the game with a comfortable 5-1 away win over Colga FC on Tuesday night in the Premier Division. Two goals from Mark Melody and further goals from James Barclay, Colin Kelly and Blake Cummins secured an 11th league win of the season in an unbeaten campaign to date. With the league title secured prior to that win after a 3-0 win over Oughterard last week, all thoughts have been firmly on Saturday’s big Irish Cup fixture with the squad having spent four days in Leeds and Doncaster last week.

While in the UK they played three friendly games against UK academy sides and also attended the Championship game between Leeds Utd and Cardiff City at Elland Road on Saturday. The club were guests of Jason Blunt, Head Academy Coach at Leeds Utd’s Thorpe Arch Academy and who was only last week appointed assistant manager to Leeds boss Neill Redfearn. In their games they did the club very proud as they defeated Doncaster Rovers 2-0 on arrival last Thursday as goals from Ben O’Gorman and Michael Okoye secured the win after goalkeeper Sam O’Gorman had saved a penalty in the game at 0-0. 

In their second game they were unlucky not to defeat a highly fancied Leeds Utd U-14 Academy side as they drew 3-3 having led twice in the game at Thorpe Arch on Friday evening. Conor Shaughnessy opened the scoring for Mervue but Leeds hit back to lead 2-1 before goals from Mike Devaney and Colin Kelly had Mervue back in front only for the home side to get a late equaliser. Before the game the squad and management received an excellent tour of Leeds Utd’s training facility at Thorpe Arch and got to see how professional footballers trained and prepared for games. They were also treated to a questions and answers session with Jason Blunt and Steve Holmes, Head of recruitment at Leeds Academy, which proved very informative for all our kids.

In their final game against an older U-15 York City Academy side the efforts of the travel and two hard games in two days (and very little sleep!!) took it’s toll as very strong physical home side ran out 3-0 winners despite Mervue dominating the second period but just couldn't score. Goalkeeper Robert Carr also saved a penalty very early in this game.

Overall it was an excellent and enjoyable trip for the kids who travelled who had a great time and big thank you to Gerry McDermott and Paul Madden of the Leeds Utd Supporters club for all their help and support with organising the trip. Also a big thank from the club to the club coaches who travelled with the 23 kids Coley Kelly, Pa O’Connell, Donnie Farragher, Tomas Flaherty, Stephen Lally, Liam Corcoran, Terry Flaherty and John Flaherty.

Saturday's tie is only the teams second home draw in the previous seven rounds of the national cup with the fifth round 2-0 win over St Kevins Boys the only previous home draw in the competition with all other rounds won away from Fahy's Field and only a single goal conceded in their six games to date. The winners of Saturday's cup tie will face either Cherry Orchard or Malahide Utd in the May final.

Lets hope they remain unbeaten after Saturday's cup tie and we can look forward to another SFAI Irish Cup final. 

Best of luck to Coley and Pa and their young squad and all support for the lads at Fahy's Field on Saturday would be appreciated.

SFAI Goodson Cup - Previous Round Results

1st Round - Bye

2nd Round - Corrib Celtic 1-5 Mervue Utd

3rd Round - Tuam Celtic 0-6 Mervue Utd

4th Round - Real Tubber (Sligo) 0-3 Mervue Utd

5th Round (Round 32) - Mervue Utd 2-0 St Kevins Boys (Dublin)

6th Round (Round 16) - North End Utd (Wexford) 0-1 Mervue Utd

7th Round (Quarter Final) - Kilorglin FC 0-2 Mervue Utd 





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