A squad of 8 Under 12 boys travelled to Weston Hockey club, Lucan, Dublin today to partake in a blitz. It was 6-a-side in one quarter of the hockey pitch and there were 4 other teams participating in our section: Portrane, Three Rock Rovers, YMCA, and Naas. The Enniscorthy lads played brilliantly and gave us all a great and determined display of hockey. We had 3 really well matched, competitive games against three teams and Naas proved to be much bigger and stronger for our gang. Alan, Andrew, Eoin, Leo, Liam, Mervyn, Ross and Tadgh all played really well, both individually and as a team. The two coaches Dave and Sheila were thrilled with their positive attitude aswell as their hockey skills.
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Enniscorthy Hockey Club senior men played their first cup match of the 2014-15 season in Leinster’s Junior Cup, which sees division six and seven teams pitted against each other vying for the silverware. The South East team took on the division six side Fingal II when they travelled to ALSAA sports complex which lies under the flight path of Dublin Airports runway.
Travelling with a strong squad, Enniscorthy believed that they were well able for the north siders, but Sunday was not to be their day as they found themselves on the wrong side of a 2-0 result. It was not for lack of effort or determination for Enniscorthy that they found themselves heading home to the South East town with this result. Unfortunately a goal eluded the travellers for the entire game with many chances coming but unfortunately no ball made it into the home sides net. Fingal packed their defence well, making it very difficult for the visitors to make much of their chances. The first goal came for Fingal after 15 minutes when they forced the Enniscorthy defence into making errors. A clearance effort from Enniscorthy was captured by the home side and a loose man was open for the pass and he took his chance when it came, 1-0 to Fingal, but all still to play for. 10 minutes later saw Enniscorthy go 2-0 down, when Fingal were awarded a short corner. Despite an attempted block by keeper Graham Hill, the home side’s powerful shot managed to find the back of the Enniscorthy net. Half time came and the visitors still knew with the way they were playing that they could turn it around. Enniscorthy pushed hard with the Chapman brothers, Glenn and Roy, integral players in attack. They linked up well with wide players Jason Rothwell, Liam Jowett and Jonathon Rothwell to name a few but unfortunately their efforts were not as fruitful as they would have wished. A hard result to take but Enniscorthy will learn from the game and move their focus back to the league when they take on Corinthians at home in the Astro Centre, Bellefield this coming Saturday. Squad: Graham Hill; Andrew Rothwell; Keith Ogilvie; Clive Rothwell (c); Martin Veitch; Roy Chapman; Glenn Chapman; Jason Rothwell; Jonathon Rothwell; Seamus McAlister; Liam Jowett; Robbie Walshe; Daithí Medcalf; Cathal Ó Suilleabháin.  Today our under 8s traveled to Wicklow for their first blitz of the season. We had 2 teams traveling with 7 on each panel which was a great turn out. There were teams from Gorey, Wicklow, Three Rock, Railway, Monkstown, Avoca and Corinthians along with ourselves which gave us a great chance to see how we are progressing and I am very happy to say we easily held our own.
We had 5 games of 12 mins each so there was no shortage of play and I can say it was great to see lots of red glowing faces at the end of it all. There were lots of goals scored and some conceded, some great defending and great passing. Glad to see you must be listening to Linda and myself a little. I would like to thank Sheila for looking after the Enniscorthy Eagles while I had the Enniscorthy Emeralds and a big thank you to all the parents that travelled today. There is lots to look forward to with this bunch of lads and it is great to see so many of them enjoying hockey. Judith Dunne The Enniscorthy 1st year team headed to Naas this Sunday to compete in a West Leinster League blitz, with clubs comprising of Naas and Newbridge both fielding two teams each.
We played 4 fifteen minute games, two against Newbridge and two against Naas. However today was not meant to be the day for this team. Unfortunately our good form of late abandoned us and we struggled in all of our matches. Our communication, skill levels and energy were lacking. Best performances on the day came from captain Katie Sutton in defence, Susannah Doyle in midfield and Martha Dunne making her debut for the U14s. Our only goal of the day came from Emer Doyle in our second match against Naas. Although, we feel we will move on from today and up the standard before our next match away to Tullamore on the 7th of December. Team: Katie Sutton (capt), Aoife Mernagh, Martha Dunne (U12), Hannah Sweeney, Emer Doyle, Eve Furlong, Orla May Culhane, Laura Smith, Susannah Doyle Last Saturday, saw Enniscorthy’s 2nd & 3rd year girls’ team take on Kilkenny in the South East League. It was an extremely difficult game against such a strong advanced opposition.
Immediately after tip off, Enniscorthy girls were put under immense pressure from the attacking Kilkenny forwards who received the first short corner of the game. Enniscorthy's goalie Kim O’Connor made magnificent saves keeping the game at 0-0 for three quarters of the first half. At the end of the first half a Kilkenny forward broke through the back line consisting of IIsa Flynn, Saoirse Power, Orlaith Breen and sweeper Roisin O'Muiri to give them a 1-0 lead, minutes before the half time whistle. An early goal was scored from the strong Kilkenny side, now giving them a solid lead. The Enniscorthy girls didn't give up and kept on fighting. The dominant forward Ciara Murphy suffered an elbow injury during the game and had to come off, now leaving the mid fielders and back line under immense pressure. As the game progressed Enniscorthy midfielders Laura Bailey, Stephanie Kinsella and May Wickham were moving the ball nicely, but Kilkenny’s back line was solid. Goalie Kim made super saves throughout the second half, but Kilkenny managed to knock two more into the net to tie up the game. Enniscorthy were up against a very experienced Kilkenny side. Molly Boyne stood in as coach for the day.  Enniscorthy U14’s started their Leinster league challenge very strongly today. A passage of play which saw Charlie pass to Seb finished by a great goal by Peter all took place in the first minute of the game. An immediate counter attack by Weston was stopped with impressive defence by Pearse who played a brilliant ball through to Seb leading to a counter attack where Enniscorthy were unfortunate when Seb’s strike on goal went wide. Play settled down with Enniscorthy having the majority of the possession in the first half. Some great breaking runs and intelligent passing by Seb and Aodán (captain) caused their opponents a lot of problems. In the 17th minute, Weston had their first serious run on our goal however heroic defending by Pearse and Sam sent the ball out of the danger zone. Throughout the first half our defence of Sam, Harry (first match), Pearse, Josh and Jack held firm with 2 marvellous stops by Glen (first time in goal). The first half finished 1-0 to Enniscorthy. Weston started the second half strongly with pressure up the wing. Great work by Josh regained possession for Enniscorthy and in the counter attack Gavin was unfortunate his stike on goal was forced marginally wide due to intense pressure from the Weston defence. The next Weston wave was stopped by brilliant defending by Harry who took the ball out of the scoring zone and led to an Enniscorthy free taken by Peter. Some great work by Seb and Peter set Charlie up for a fantastic strike giving Enniscorthy their second goal. The team settled well in the second half and gave a demonstration of team play with some super passing and quick movement of the ball. It was particularly exciting to see the natural integration of the new players to the squad; Peter, Gavin, Sam, Glen and Harry who all bring new strengths to the team. The end-to-end pace saw many challenges to our defence, who were collectively brilliant. Their great work at the back regained possession for Enniscorthy giving them many opportunities to attack. The third goal came from an excellent pass by Ronán to Jake who shot into the circle and was picked up by Charlie who finished with another wonderful strike. Ronán was also pivotal in the scoring of the last goal as he showed great maturity and selflessness in passing a lovely ball to Jake whose shot finished in the back of the net. Overall it was an all-star team performance and hard to select a man of the match, however it was deservedly awarded to Jake. Definitely a lot to look forward to from this team this season. |
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May 2023
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