The Mid Leinster Finals of the EA Sports FAI Schools 5 A Side competition were held in Portlaoise AFC on Wednesday the 29th of April: Teams from Laois, Offaly, Kildare and Kilkenny took part in 5 different competitions to find winners to represent the region in the Leinster Final in Navan Co: Meath on the 20th of May:
Boys A Cup
Teams
St: Broghans N:S (Offaly)
Convent of Mercy (Laois)
Timahoe N:S (Kildare)
St: Leonards N:S (Kilkenny)
This group was made up of the All Ireland finalists St: Broghans of Offaly which proved in both the Offaly and Mid Leinster finals to be a very strong team for 2009: The Offaly school reached the final against Convent of Mercy Laois and won the game 1/0 after a very tight game: Dale Sheridan was on fire with 9 goals during the finals helping his team to the Leinster Finals:
Boys B Cup
Teams
St: Brendan’s Birr (Offaly)
Ballylynan N:S (Laois)
Goersbridge N:S (Kilkenny)
Rathmore N:S (Kildare)
The Boys B Cup proved to be a very tight group with a maximum of one goal per game during the group games which lead to St:Brendans of Birr meeting their neighbouring rivals Ballylynan of Laois in the final of the competition: After a long day of games St: Brendans of Birr got the better of a skilful and strong Ballylynan with a winning margin of 2/0:
Boys C Cup
Teams
Scoil Mhuire Newbridge (Kildare)
St: Patrick’s (Kilenny)
St: Patrick’s Portarlington (Offaly)
St: Paul’s N:S Portlaoise (Laois)
A high level of football was played between the schools taking part in the Boys C Cup with the top two teams drawing level on points and going to goal difference to decide who came first in the group: The 1st place team was St: Patrick’s NS Portarlington and they took on Scoil Mhuire Newbridge in the final: The final went down to a penalty shootout after extra time could not separate the sides: St Patrick’s Portarlington won the game after a superb game from goalkeeper Patrick O’Sullivan:
Girls A Cup
Teams
North Kildare Educate Together (Kildare)
Goresbridge (Kilkenny)
Geashill N:S (Offaly)
Gaelscoil Phórtlaoise (Laois)
The girls A competition was a very exciting competition with four skilful teams taking part in the competition: Gaelscoil Phortlaoise and Geashill N:S in Offaly were the two teams to play out for the winners of the Mid Leinster and to go on and represent the region in the Leinster final: Gaelscoil Phórtlaoise won the game after scoring the only goal of the game and booked their place in the final on the 20th of May:
Girls B Cup
Teams
Gaelscoil an Eiscir Riada (Offaly)
St:Mary’s N:S (Kilkenny)
Scoil Mhicil Naofa Athy (Kildare)
Three teams took part in the Girls B Cup after the late withdrawal of the Laois representatives however this did not affect the standard of the football played in the competition: Each team played each other twice to see who would meet in the Girls B Cup final: After all group games were decided Scoil Mhicil Athy came out on top and played Gaelscoil an Eiscir Riada in the final: Scoil Mhicil proved to be too strong for the girls from Offaly as they ran out 4/0 winners of the competition after a great performance from Niamh Mulhall from Scoil Mhicil Naofa Athy:
