The Xtra/vision FAI Schools 5-a-side County Finals in Kerry was hosted in Christy Leahy Park Tralee, home of St Brendan’s Park FC on 22, 23 April:
What a fabulous venue, 6 pitches were in operation to host the entrants for this year’s finals and even the weather was ideal for what turned out to be two great days of soccer activity in the Kingdom:
Thursday (22 April) saw the small schools boys and girls take centre stage: The small schools boys section had a massive 22 teams taking place while the girls section had a large entry of 14 teams:
The group stages began at 10am with the goals coming thick and fast: The four teams to qualify for the semi finals where Cromane NS , Firies NS, Derryquay NS and Kilcummin NS: And what semi/finals we had: Cromane took on Firies and after golden goal extra time the teams could not be separated: So we had the dreaded penalty shoot out, with Firies coming out on top:
The other 2 teams of Kilcummin and Derryquay could not be separated in normal time, but Kilcummin just shaded a very close contest in golden goal extra time:
The final served up by both schools of Firies and Kilcummin was excellent and it took a moment of brilliance from Fergal O’Donoghue to set up the winning goal and for Kilcummin to be crowned Champs for 2010 on the scoreline of 3/2:
The girls section was keenly contested by all schools with Raheen NS, Killarney and Gaelscoil, Listowel coming through their respective groups to qualify for the final:
On the day it was Gaelscoil Listowel who ran out winners on a score of 3/1:
Friday (23 April) saw the medium and large schools finals taking place: The large schools boys section saw St Olivers School Killarney take on CBS Clounalour Tralee: The Killarney school raced into a 2 goal lead, the Tralee school however never gave up, and in a very tense and exciting encounter came up with the winning goal with time running out and won it 3/2:
The large schools girls section saw St Oliver’s take on Presentation Convent Listowel, the teams could not be separated in normal time and it went to penalties, with Savannah Mc Carthy scoring the winner for Listowel:
In the medium schools section the teams to qualify for the semi finals were Lixnaw NS, Scoil Bhride Loreto, Scoil Iognaid Ris, and Fossa NS: The finalists were Scoil Bhride, Loreto Killarney and Scoil Iognaid Ris Dingle (last year’s Munster Champions): The Killarney school were fastest out of the blocks and were 2/0 up by half time: Try as they could the Dingle school could not claw back the 2 goals and were beaten on a score of 2/1:
The 5 group winners will now go forward to represent Kerry in the Munster Finals that will take place in the RSC Waterford on May 12 2010:
Overall 57 teams took part in this year’s event, the teachers and schools must be given great thanks for their participation and support of this event as it has grown in size over the past few years: Now let’s hope that one of the representatives in the Munster Finals will come home with success: