Douglas Hall V's Crosshaven
On a day when Champions Cork City were playing in Turners Cross and won 3-0, most real soccer fans choose instead to visit Douglas Hall FC in Moneygourney looking to see the real deal with Crosshaven's Under 9's Galacticos. A bumper crowd of 10,003 got a treat, amid rumours of Seria A and Premiership scouts hidden in the crowd.
Last season in the Cork School Boy's League this fixture was cancelled due to bad weather and held an almost mystical dream in the boys eye's but to be fair shouts of "We do not fear them!", "We have only 3,000 to pick from and they have 40,000!", "they have 60 players at under 9 and we have about 15!" said the boys beforehand.
Crosshaven played with two teams, coming away with 5 wins, 3 draws and two losses. We should have had 6 wins but more about that later.
Team 1
Daineal, Sam, William, Oscar, Peter, Diarmuid, Theo
Won 2, drew 2, one loss.
First off everyone was brilliant, 10/10 performances, two tough draws and then a loss before the boys gave it everything winning their last two games. We have to mention that Peter (given to Douglas Hall to make up the numbers in a 1-1 draw) became the first player in history to score for Crosshaven and Douglas Hall at the same time, the Crosshaven coaches telling him "Don't you dare score against us" were ignored, and at the final whistle his treats in the shop on the way home were withdrawn. Once again some great goalkeeping from Daineal (who spoke some Italian), Sam unlucky in not scoring but excellent once again, William like a man possessed running down the wing and scoring (loved the celebrations!), Oscar scoring from 40 yards into the top corner, Peter Pogba doing his thing, Diarmuid the engine in midfield and scoring the crucial goals and lastly Theo a fierce operator burning the opposition with his pace and providing assists at will. (Ted we want Theo at every match is that ok 
🙂 )
A special mention to Oscar, who last week scored the winner at 4-4, and was denied by a draw. Tears afterwards. But yesterday he put it all behind him to win us game 3 at 1-1 with a devastating free kick. The smile afterwards made his teammates day.
Team 2
Lost 1, won 4.
Hughie, Chris, Fergus, Fionan, Jimmy, Nicholas
This reporter can only gather snippets from the games as he was looking at Team 1, but after getting a hiding in game 1 this team was given the hair dryer treatment from Pat "Allardice" and then went on to create havoc by winning 4 of their remaining games. As usual Hughie outstanding in goal, with a strikers touch as well. We are very lucky to have two great goalkeepers in the squad. To put this in perspective the under 11's have about 350 players and not one of them wants to go in goal. Chris showed once again he can play anywhere, though the coaches feel he is a brilliant defender he loves midfield but we will eventually coach that out of him. Fergus is Fergus, if you foul him God help you for the remaining matches. He will take the head off anyone who messes with him. Fionan once again great, we think his future is in defence as he loves the tackling! Jimmy once again the midfield maestro , swerving and running rings around the opposition. Special mention to Nicholas, who scored a goal according to the crowd and also the oppostion Douglas Hall coaches "you wouldn't see in the Premier League". The goal, scored from 40 yards described as a "Rocket". We tried to sell Nicholas afterwards to Douglas Hall but they wouldn't meet the buy out clause of €75 million.
So all in all a great day out, thanks to Douglas Hall for arranging. Roll on the next matches.
