by Gerry Murtagh
St Kevin’s under 14.3 made the trip to Barcelona at Easter to compete in the Costa Brava Cup. An early start on Holy Thursday saw the squad of 17 plus 20 supporters assemble at 4.45am in Dublin Airport. The Manager was in a flap straight away, as all of the tickets were left behind. After an hour of queuing to get through security the flight to Spain got underway. Day 1 involved settling into the very nice town of Lloret de Mar, players headed straight for the pool, supporters worked on their tans. A great atmosphere in the town, teams in their colours strolling about everywhere. This is a huge tournament, with about 160 teams competing.
Friday Morning everyone was up at 7am to prepare for the first game at 9.00. The Saints were on the pitch at 8.30 warming up. The Italian opposition, Lacchiarella, turned up promptly at ten minutes after kick off time. Eventually we get underway and the Italians don’t do tackles, don’t head the ball, roll around when touched, but can play. The Saints are one down after five minutes, but the lads did not come all this way to lie down. Dean O’Keeffe scrambles an equaliser and then early in the 2nd half Paul Darcy scored the goal of the tournament, smacking the ball home from 20 yards after superb midfield work from Stuart Fitzpatrick. The Italians equalised but then Saned Ali set up Paul Darcy for his 2nd and Stephen Mooney lobed the keeper to see the Saints run out 4-2 winners.
Second game of the day was against VV Quick from Holland. The Saints were on fire and won 3 – 0, with goals from man of the match James Gilchrist, Alan Sherwin and Jordan Thuillier.
Day 2 and the weather was much cooler. This suited the Saints and poor Gumfens from Switzerland were beaten 9 – 0. Jordan Thuillier and Dylan McMahon both scored hat tricks, Josh McLoughlin scored from a 30 yard free kick, and Alan Sherwin and Dylan McLoughlin both headed home corners.
The late game on Saturday brought us down to earth, as we were beaten by Fluierry from Switzerland, 2-0. Lads were very disappointed until we realised that if we can beat Meadow Sports the next day still win the group and would be into the semi’s.
Sunday morning and the rain was tipping down. We were playing a strong Meadow Sports team from Woking. Nothing between the teams but in Spain the ref’s give free kicks for the slightest touch. Meadow got a free at the edge of the box and an excellent strike hit our net just under the bar. Early in the 2nd half they score again and the game is up. The Saints battled to the end but could not break them down.
The lads were very disappointed but recovered very quickly. Their good humour lifts all of the party as we head back to Lloret. All of the players did St Kevins Boys proud with some excellent football and superb behaviour off the pitch. Most importantly the players looked out for one another and managed to bring their parents safely home. One last drama as this time the Managers lost 7 passports at the Airport. They are recovered just in time to get home.
