Mallow United 3 

Carrigaline Hibernians 0 

MALLOW UNITED were victorious in the CSL U14 local cup final despite a gallant performance from opponents Carrigaline Hibernians.

United were made to work for the silverware at Turner’s Cross by their opponents but goals from Adam O’Reilly, Colin Healy and Chris Amundala sealed the win for Mallow on the night.

Sean O’Neill and Charlie Hanratty played together in the centre of the Carrigaline defence with Alex Curtain and Shay Boyle excelling in the full back positions. 

Sam Donoghue and Liam Walsh linked up in the centre of the park for Carrigaline with Max Rainey-McCabe and Dessie Carroll supplying attacking duo Luke Donnegana and Jamie Murphy from the flanks. Rainey-McCabe in particular was impressive throughout the opening exchanges.

Adam O’Reilly, Ronan Luddy, Cathal Foley and Mark Fitzgerald made up the Mallow rear-guard. 

The defensive quartet played in front of shot-stopper Diarmuid O’Riordan and Michael O’Riordan played in a deep role in midfield next to Barry O’Driscoll, Eoin Looney and Davidson Amechi with Christian Lowe and Colin Healy up front.

Mallow’s Looney caused problems for the Carrigaline defence as the first half progressed and the youngster almost carved out the first goal of the game on the quarter of the hour mark. 

Looney picked up the ball deep on the left flank before proceeding to skip past four opposing players. 

The youngster subsequently found Lowe with an accurate pass who in turn passed the ball to the awaiting Healy but a last-ditch block from a Carrigaline defender kept the score at 0-0.

At the other end, Carrigaline thought they had taken the lead when Murphy headed on target from six yards after Donnegana’s clever assist. However, Fitzgerald raced back to make a dramatic clearance on the line to the delight of his team-mates.

The opening goal of the game came just minutes before the half time interval. 

Referee Pat Cambridge awarded Mallow a free kick on the right and left footer O’Reilly was on hand to find the back of the next with a powerful 20-yard deflected effort.

The end-to-end action continued in the second half and Colin Healy doubled the lead on 42 minutes. 

The Carrigaline defence failed to clear their lines and Healy capitalised by pouncing from close range.

Undeterred, the boys in blue and yellow pushed on in search of a goal to get them back into the contest and the Mallow defence cleared successive corner kicks from Boyle.

On 50 minutes, Chris Amundala ended the game as a contest by prodding home from an acute angle after O’Neil had blocked an almost certain goal on the line. 

Amundala was in the perfect position to side-foot home on the rebound for 3-0.

Overall, the final was a competitive one between two sides intent on playing entertaining, attacking football and some clinical finishing was ultimately the difference between the teams.

Mallow United: Diarmuid O’Riordan, Adam O’Reilly, Ronan Luddy, Cathal Foley, Mark Fitzgerald, Eoin Looney, Barry O’Driscoll, Michael O’Riordan, Davidson Amechi, Colin Healy, Berkeley Arrey, Chris Amundala, Christian Lowe, Jack Oviawe.

Carrigaline Hibernians: Patrick O’Sullivan, Shay Boyle, Sean O’Neill, Charlie Hanratty, Alex Curtain, Sam Donoghue, Liam Walsh, Dessie Carroll, Luke Donnegana, Jamie Murphy, Max Rainey-McCabe, Evan Onakuse, Aaran Coleman, Sam Collins, Jerry Scannell, Conor Murphy.

Echo Man of the Match: Eoin Looney.

Referee & assistants: Pat Cambridge, Dave O’Donoghue, Raz van Neidoni, Fionn McCarthy.