Tommy O'Sullivan U14 Boys Indoor Shield Final Report
January 22, 2017
Today was the 3rd year for the Leinster Hockey/Portrane Hockey Club Under 14 Boys Indoor tournament at Donabate Portrane Community Centre.
Played once again with great effort & spirit by all the boys the standard continues to grow every year. While the top 5 Clubs prepare for Cup final Sunday next week today was a great opportunity for Railway Union, Avoca, Skerries, Suttonians & Portrane to compete for some silverware.
Railway Union who were perhaps a little unfortunate to miss out on Cup Final Sunday were very impressive in topping the group with 4 wins and a draw today. The battle for runners up and reaching the final was nip & tuck between the other 4 Clubs who played out some great games and with Skerries needing a win in their final game to reach the final they were caught by Suttonians whose displays were far more deserving than the 2 points they achieved - and they deserved to draw with Skerries 2-2 despite this result facilitating Avoca to reach the final and play Railway (who they drew with 1-1 in the opening game today).
Railway went in as favourites and despite creating plenty of chances Avoca were solid defensively and always dangerous on the counter attack. Railway took the lead but Avoca responded with a quick equaliser and with Railway looking the likely winners they were caught with 90 seconds remaining and a brilliant winning goal by Avoca who also won the Shield in 2015.
Congrats to Avoca on their deserved victory with commiserations to Railway Union who will wonder how they let it slip away. Congratulations also to Skerries, Suttonians and Portrane who all contributed to a great tournament and their respective coaches who are putting in great work developing these future hockey stars. One small consolation for Skerries saw a brilliant tournament from their star player Ciaran Hyland who was selected as Player of the tournament today. Congrats Ciaran. We now look forward to Cup Final Sunday next weekend where YMCA, Three Rock Rovers, Monkstown, Wicklow and Corinthians will all compete for the Tommy O' Sullivan Perpetual Cup.
Report by Adrian Henchy.
