Douglas Hall advance to the quarter final of the U17 Gussie Walsh Cup with victory over Kinsale

Douglas Hall 2 

Kinsale 0

Douglas Hall advanced to the quarter final of the U17 Gussie Walsh Cup with a two nil victory over Kinsale at Moneygourney last Saturday evening.

When these sides met in the Daly Individual Supplies U17 Premier League earlier this season, it was the Hall who came out on top by four goals to nil, so Kinsale were very cautious in they approach to this cup tie.

The home side, Douglas led at half time 2-0 with two early goals from Finn Doyle and Tom Collins, however, they couldn’t increase their lead for the rest of the game because Kinsale were happy to sit deep inside their own half and their keeper Stephen Linehan was in superb form between the sticks.

The Hall made a dream start to the game and led 1-0 in the very first minute, Eoin McCarthy found Finn Doyle with a peach of a pass and he stuck an unstoppable effort high into the roof of the net from 25 yards. 

They were two to the good a minute later when their captain Darragh O’Flaherty whipped in a dangerous free kick and Tom Collins was on hand to poke home from close range. 

The Hall were now in full flow and were playing some beautiful football that was very easy on the eye and came close to increasing their lead in the 13th minute, however, Kinsale keeper Steven Linehan got down well to push Vilson Sefolli powerful effort around the post. 

The visitors did have a decent chance seven minutes later when Amir Al-Masri broke free inside the Hall box, but keeper Noel Cantwell raced off his line to make a brave save. 

Douglas were having the lions share of possession, as Kinsale were quite happy to have 11 players behind the ball and tried to catch the Hall on the break, however, the home side were very disciplined and organised all over the park and dealt with everything that Kinsale threw at them with ease. 

They had to be very patient with the buildup play trying to play through the lines and had another good opportunity in the 37th minute, when Doyle pounced on a loose ball outside the box, he stung the hands of Linehan in the Kinsale goal with another powerful effort.

The had to pattern of the game didn’t change much from the restart and when O’Flaherty whipped in another superb free kick into the Kinsale box in the 54th minute, Mark Keeshan saw his header go agonising wide. 

They came close again to increasing their lead five minutes later, McCarthy done well to control a pass from Clayton Tait and when he squared the ball for Cillian Ross it took another fine save by Linehan to push his effort around the post. 

The one thing that was very confusing was that Kinsale were two goals down and they kept with the tactics of sitting in a low block with all their players inside their own half, which definitely frustrating the Hall as they were finding it hard to breakdown them down. However, a piece of magic from the Hall’s Macdarragh Lynch in the 68th minute nearly gave them a three goal lead, he picked up a pass from Ross ands turned his defender only to see his effort crash off the crossbar and away to safely. 

Linehan came to Kinsale’s rescue again three minutes later when Ross danced his way into the box, but the keeper got down well to push his effort around the post. 

With time running out the Hall substitute Shane Barrett had a wonderful chance to increase their lead, again O’Flaherty play a delightful ball to him inside the box, however, it took another fine save by Linehan to keep him at bay.

DOUGLAS HALL: Noel Cantwell, Cillian Ross, Darragh O’Flaherty, Clayton Tait, Mark Keeshan, Finn Doyle, Tom Collins, John Dollard-Young, Vilson Sefolli, Eoin McCarthy, Macdarragh Lynch.

Subs: Shane Barrett for Sefolli (57), Kevin Healy for Dollard-Young.

KINSALE: Stephen Linehan, Oran Sheehy, Darragh Kingston, Leon Griffin, Jake Howey, Thomas O’Donovan, Dylan Prior, Dan Foley, Sean O’Driscoll, Charlie O’Dowd, Amir Al-Masri.

Subs: Filip Roborecki for Foley (74), Senan O’Connell for Prior (81).

Referee: Yves Kriwan.