Sunday 2nd September TSDL Junior Division 1 League
Wilderness Rovers 0-3 Peake Villa
Scorer: Adam Garrett (1) Kieran Hennessy (2)
Villa travelled down to Clonmel this afternoon with a strong squad of 17 but still missing a few regulars to face a big and physical home side who also won their first game last week. The home team had a couple of early corners which came to nothing, but Villa started to find their feet in the game and once they did, they started to create a lot of chances. With the midfield trio of Stevie Fewer, Davy Mahony and Liam McCucheon dominating, this allowed the front 3 to attack the visitors defence. Eoin Dwyer was causing Wilderness a lot of problems with his work rate and his dominance in the air led to chances for Adam Garrett and Kieran Hennessy who were unlucky not to score on a few occasions. Villa had a number of corners in succession and some excellent deliveries from Darren McGuire had the visitors defence at sixes and sevens but somehow Villa failed to find the net with the home keeper pulling off some great saves, including an excellent save from a Stevie Fewer strike. In the 25th minute after another attack, Eoin Dwyer was on hand to set up Adam Garrett, who was not to be denied this time and slotted past the keeper. Villa 1-0. For the remainder of the half Villa had numerous more chances to extend the lead but failed to find target with efforts from Darren Connor, Davy Mahony and Kieran Hennessey going close. Half time 1-0.
In the second half the home team came more into the game and started to enjoy a little more possession but the Villa defence stood strong, in particular Darren Connor and Alan Ryan. As the hosts began to push forward looking for an equaliser the game opened up and Villa had a couple of opportunities to add to the score but failed to take advantage. In the 85th minute after a couple of corners were defended by the visitors defence, the ball was cleared to substitute Andrew Halloran who with his first touch played a delightful through ball to Kieran Hennessy, to leave him one on one with keeper and he made no mistake to put villa 2-0 ahead. This knocked the stuffing out of Wilderness and in the 90th minute after Kevin Croke broke up one of their attacks and powered out of defence he released Eoin Dwyer in on goal, Eoin cooly waited for the keeper to advance before very unselfishly passing to Kieran Hennessy to pass ball into an empty net to make it 3-0 game over.
It was an excellent performance from the whole squad and was as good a display as Villa have produced in recent times, especially in the first half with the passing totally outplaying the hosts. The defence were rock solid with stand in goalkeeper Enjies well protected by the defence led by Darren Connor, in midfield Stevie Fewer was excellent and another great display from new signing Liam McCucheon. Up front Kieran Hennessy on return to squad was excellent and chipped in with 2 goals, but on the day the man of the match was Eoin Dwyer for his all round display and 2 assists for the goals. 2 wins from 2 so far and 2 clean sheets. Well done boys.
Saturday 1st September TSDL Youths Division 1 League
Peake Villa 1-3 Cahir Park
Scorer: Kevin Patan
Our youth's entertained Cahir Park on a beautiful afternoon up at the Tower grounds. Both teams started well, playing some neat football without creating too much in the first quarter. Villa took the lead in the 17th minute with good build up play. Jack Kelly found Paddy Stakelum in a forward position who laid it off to Kevin Patan who shot with his left foot straight into the bottom corner. Cahir tried hard to get into the game but the Villa defence was been well marshalled by Kieran Costello, Jordan Fahy and Dillion Maher. In the 33rd minute tho Cahir did equalise when Villa failed to clear their lines. The sides went into the break level. 1:1 Half Time.
Both sides came out in the 2nd half looking to take a hold in the game. Villa's midfield played very well with fine performances from Cian Stakelum, Jack Ryan Casey and Tony Galvin. It looked like the game was going to end a draw but in the 87th minute Cahir attacked but the ball got away from the Cahir player and went out for a goal kick but to everybody's surprise the referee gave a corner to Cahir and the game was turned on its head as Cahir scored from the corner. This was a cruel blow for the boys who worked hard throughout the game. They couldn't recover from that and conceded again in injury time.
The boys deserved something out of this game, where a draw would have been a fair result. Great performance from all the squad.