Weekend Review
Saturday 16th April
Men’s 3XI v Naas – The 3rd team’s 4th victory in a row was a simple enough procession. David O’Malley opened the scoring very fortuitously when his attempted square pass for his cousin Ryan deflected off a defender’s stick and trickled over the line. The lead was doubled ten minutes before the break when Matt Lucas latched onto a loose ball in the circle to fire home. The crucial goal came right before the break as Tadgh Murphy touched in at the back post from a pre-planned short corner to make it 3-0. The 4th goal came the other side of half-time as Lucas barrelled his way over the line – reminiscent of his days playing for the club under 8 team’s. Naas pulled a goal back even if the decisive strike appeared to come from above the shoulder. O’Malley got his second near the end with a short corner deflection.
Men’s 4XI v Three Rock – The 4th team had to start without a goalkeeper and conceded during that period without a netminder. A second goal followed soon after and although Michael Tolan got a goal back, they couldn’t find an equaliser.
Men’s 5XI v St James Gate – Goalscorers: Sam Williamson(2), Mark Capel
Sunday April 17th
Galtrim Cup v Monkstown – The Galtrim Cup team advanced to it’s 5th final in a row with a hard-fought 4-3 win over Monkstown on Sunday morning. ‘Town’ started better and took the lead around 10 minutes in when a well-worked short corner was flicked home from close range. David O’Malley equalised mid-way through the half with a deflection from a short corner but Glens were behind again soon after when a dragflick flew off the post and in. Sam O’Connor capped an action packed half with a goal right before half-time when he casually flicked home from the right hand side of the circle after a corner injection came out wrong.
A quick start to the second half was key for Glenanne as they took a two-goal lead inside ten minutes of the restart. Kevin O’Malley beat the first runner on Glens 4th corner before flicking into the roof of the net and his cousin Ryan doubled the lead with a miss-hit shot from the top of the circle. Ryan O’Malley looked to have sealed the tie when he deflected a goal-bound shot from Tadgh Murphy with his foot (according to umpire Richie Shaw). Monkstown took advantage of this life-line to pull a goal back five minutes from time but stout defending and some fine goalkeeping from Darragh McGinley kept the blue wave at bay.
Tuesday April 19th
Men’s 2XI v UCD – A comfortable 8-1 win in Belfield for the men’s second team as they all but secured at least a 5th place finish in Division 3. UCD were a lot stronger than the last meeting between these two sides (a 12-0 win for the Glens) but the visitors played extremely well and scored some fantastic goals. Fred Van Der Weij opened the scoring in the 2nd minute when he was presented with a tap in after Matt Lucas had turned over the UCD centre back. Van Der Weij doubled his tally soon after with a solo reverse stick effort and Cillian O’Neill added a third goal before ten minutes was up when he pushed home from close range.
UCD pulled a goal back when a low, powerful dragflick was deflected into the roof of the net by Clinton Murphy but the three-goal buffer was restored before half-time in bizarre fashion. The ball struck a UCD foot outside the circle and the home side assumed a free would be the result but Glens continued to play on and Matt Lucas rifled home from 12 yards out.
Mark Keppel scored his first second team goal of the season eight minutes after half-time when he benefited from another fine Lucas pass before Colin Neville added a sixth with a simple finish from the penalty spot. The 7th goal was a coaches dream – a perfect move drawn up on the whiteboard. A John Stewart pass was deflected first time down the line by Sam O’Connor and Lucas outpaced his marker to get there first. His first time square ball left Cillian O’Neill with a simple tap in. Captain Clive Kennedy got in on the scoring in fortuitous fashion when a shot from Neville hit his stick and deflected in – this coming after the top goalscorer had missed two sitters!
