Shannon Town B 0
Shannon Olympic A 1
After the great win over Newmarket B in 2nd round saw our Junior B team take on near neighbours Shannon Olympic A in the 3rd round of the Munster Junior Cup. This game saw both teams start slowly having not played a competitive match since the disappointing Cup final loss for our B team and waterlogged pitches last week saw the game postponed a week. The home side grew into the opening minutes of the game and put some nice passages of play together against the Premier side forcing them into some great defending to deny them the opening goal. The away side also growing into the game did nearly open the scoring when a through ball found the Olympic attacker, he controlled excellently only to see Fergal McCarthy make up the ground and put in a challenge to deny the away side. The Town pushing hard for a goal on the stroke of 35 minutes saw them win a free kick 35 yards out, up stepped Eoin Collins, he blasted his effort straight at the Olympic keeper to see him parry the ball over the bar for a Shannon Town corner kick. 6 minutes later saw Kenneth Buckley control a cross on the edge of the box he curled his effort narrowly wide of the post. Frustrated, 0-0 half time.
The 2nd half saw the away side really push and try show their quality but the hard working midfield of Conor Slattery, Evan Glynn, Eoin Collins and Karl Scott saw them match the intensity of the Premier midfielders and make them work for every ball that was won, in the 55th minute a ball broke to the Olympic midfielder, he played a ball over the heads of the Town defense and the away striker forced a great save from the Town keeper Gary Cusack. 5 minutes later another effort was blasted wide of the Town posts by the Olympic center half having found himself latching onto a through ball. Then on the stroke of 70 minutes the deadlock was broken when a corner kick was bundled over the line at the back post by the Olympic center half and saw him make it 1-0 to the away side. The Town pushed to get back into the game and nearly did so in the 80th minute when a ball was whipped into the box by winger Jamie Hodge and saw Ken Buckley latch onto the cross heading his effort just over the bar. With time running out and Olympic banked in their own box hanging on for dear life, saw another ball whipped to the back post by Eoghan Gough to see Adrian Carew connect with a volley which looked like the net was going to rattle only to see the ball scrape the post and go wide! It ended up being the last clear cut chance and the away side hung on in the end to win 1-0. The B team disappointed to bow out of the Munster Junior but really pleased with the performance against a Premier side really putting it up to them for the 90 minutes.
No Fixture for the B team this weekend sees them have a free weekend!
