On a sunny late afternoon on the 23rd of September, the teams from North West London took to the field in what was almost the last competitive game of the season and the most important one with the Championship cup at stake. Throughout the summer, both teams had produced exciting football, both had players that had been to Feile; the result always unpredictable when they met but at the same time Parnells always taking to the field with the right attitude and confident in their own ability.
From Beanón Corrigan winning the throw in, Parnells took the initiative and produced some excellent passing from Aiden Doran at full back through to Callum Downey at full forward who had an unlucky wide early on but was involved in winning the first free enabling Beanón Corrigan to put the first point of the game over the bar. Defence was tight and that let the forwards drive on; again a fine point was scored way out the field from Folu Saku.
The first ten minutes looked very promising and Tara could not get in the game but then started to put the pressure on, gaining a free they scored their first point. For a while, Parnells struggled to get the ball out of their own half and Tara’s made sure they capitalised on this and scored another point. An even game but the Tara’s No 8 started to show some of his strength by making powerful driving runs through the midfield linking up with their No 11 and converting scores with Tara also scoring a penalty. Going slightly against the run of play, Parnells No 15, Callum Downey put the ball in the back of the net through good linking play by Darragh Griffin. This boosted the team but at times it was hard to contain Tara. All the backs were working extra hard with Oliver Steward, Conor Moran, Ronan Hutchins, Darragh Griffin, Pearse Kerr and Aiden Doran making key defensive moves, fighting for and winning ball under pressure. Although Tara had scored two more goals, Folu Saku and Patrick Murphy added two vital points and by the end of the first half Tara led by 3-05 to 1-05.
The second half started with both teams trying to gain ascendancy and both initially struggling to convert scores. Parnells were not giving up and with David Pender and Beanón Corrigan exerting their influence on the game at midfield and the forwards, Patrick Murphy, Folu Saku, Luke Keane, Harry Grey, Cian Moore and Callum Downey all causing the Tara defence problems, Parnells rattled off three points to Tara’s one in the early stages, managing to eat away at Tara’s lead. Aiden Doran grew in confidence, driving the ball out of defence in the knowledge that Eddie Morrisey was confidently sweeping up loose ball behind him At this stage Tara were finding it hard to break through and didn’t capitalise on a lot of possession and sending the ball wide on a few occasions. It was still anyone’s game.
However, in the last quarter Tara’s confidence rose as they moved the ball with speed and accuracy and some great support and link up play. Tara would take further crucial scores including two goals and Parnells could not get back on level terms. Substitutions were made but they had little time to make an impact. Final score Parnells 1 – 08 to 5 – 08. Although the margin of points difference was 12, it was only 4 ‘scores’ in reality and that was how close a game it was.
All of the players ‘ran their socks off’ and apart from one or two handling errors and occasional wides they did very little wrong. As one of our parents said, both teams had ‘their purple patches’ and never gave up. It was just unfortunate that on this occasion, the game wasn’t won by Parnells but all of them will come back more experienced and stronger and better players for being involved in a competitive and tough game. Congratulations to each and every one of them and to Colin Corrigan who has trained and guided them all season and put in a massive amount of work on and off the field.
Team
Eddie Morrisey, Oliver Steward, Aiden Doran, Conor Moran, Pearse Kerr, Darragh Griffin, Ronan Hutchins, Beanón Corrigan (0-1f), David Pender, Luke Keane, Folu Saku (0-4 1f), Patrick Murphy (0-1), Harry Grey (0-1), Cian Moore (0-1), Callum Downey (1-0), Seamus Cuddy, Jamie Logan, Aiden Moylette and Sean Pender.
