This morning saw our U21‘s kick off their 2020 season. Both Ahane and Mungret/St Pauls travelled to Ballybricken to play this first round match and with conditions not being the most favourable to either side, the crowd that gathered to support the teams knew that a win was not going to be easily got.

Ahane were quickest off the mark with corner forward Mark Donnellan slotting the ball over the bar within the first minute. This was followed by Adam Murrihy getting his first of many for the day from a free. Three minutes in and Ahane had three points from three different players, the third point coming from the stick of Ronan Fox. Mungret’s centre forward Paul O’Brien got them off the mark with a free. Ahane’s Ciaran Barry made some fantastic catches at centre back which allowed his teammates out the field to run off him and make more space and scoring opportunities. Adam got his second and Ahane‘s fourth point from a stunning strike out near the sideline that sailed over the bar. Ahane began to get on top and the scores started to stack up. 10 minutes in and the score board had it as Ahane 0-8 Mungret/St Pauls 0-01. However Mungret/St Pauls never let the heads drop and in the 15 minute they slotted home their first goal of the day and brought the gap back to four. But not a minute later Ahane got their first and only goal of the game when Ronan Reale hit the back of the net with a stunning goal. Adam Murrihy and Daniel Minehan added a point each to Ahane scoreline and with 20 minutes gone in the half it stood as Ahane 1-10 Mungret/St Pauls 1-02. Mungret/St Pauls Paul O’Brien kept their scores ticking over and he scored the next six points in a row all from placed balls. Adam added two more to his first half tally to stall Mungret/St Pauls purple patch. Throughout the game there were great pieces of defensive play, Padraig Harnett put his body on the line on more than one occasion to get a block in and there was great pressure put on from both sides to ensure that neither team were going to win any easy ball. The teams went in at half time on a score line of Ahane 1-12 Mungret/St Pauls 1-08.

It was Mungret/St Pauls that started the second half quickest as they got a point from the throw in. Again Adam stepped up to take the frees and he scored two more points which kept the gap at five points. However from there on Mungret/St Pauls took a hold of the game and made it increasingly harder for Ahane to get the ball to their forwards. They continued to tack on the points and 14 minutes into the half they had managed to close the gap to a single point. The killer blow game in the 18th minute when a ball game into the Mungret/St Paul’s forward line and they took their opportunity and buried it in the back of William Leahy’s net which meant Mungret/St Pauls led the game for the first time. Ahane never gave up and they continued to put in the hard tackles. Mungret/St Pauls continued to push on and they widened the gap to 4 points. Ahane’s last score of the day came from Adam Murrihy who ended the day with a personal tally of 10 points (8 from frees) which brought the gap back to 3 however Mungret/St Pauls put two more over the bar and the game ended on a scoreline of Ahane 1-15 Mungret/St Pauls 2-17. Although Ahane started strong ultimately Mungret/St Pauls finished the stronger and ran out 5 point winners.

Ahane will now play Garryspillane on Tuesday 11th February at 8pm in Doon. Keep on eye out on our social media pages to keep up to date with all the latest fixtures and news!