Sunday 24th August
Junior A 0 - 2 Clonmel Celtic
Junior B 0 - 0 Slieveardagh - game was abandoned because of a serious injury after 15 minutes to Peake Villa's Jamie Stapleton, we wish Jamie a speedy recovery.
Saturday 23rd August
Youths 4 - 0 Clonmel Celtic, scorers Mikey Wade (2) and Jack Hackett (2)
This was the opening game of the new season which started with a nice touch by the Clonmel Celtic team who made a guard of honour for the Peake Villa Youths team, who are triple cup holders from last season. The first game of the season is always difficult to call, as you have last years u16 players merging with the youth survivors from last year, so it is hard to gauge the form.
The Villa lads started brightly and continued where the team left off last year by playing a nice brand of passing football combined with some sound defensive play throughout the field. Villa were quick off the mark and came close to scoring a number of times. A great cross from left back Darren McGuire was met on the volley on the far right by Arron Callan, which was well saved by the Celtic keeper. Darren went close from a corner by Dale Loughnane, but his header blazed over the crossbar. Clonmel Celtic begun to come more into the game and were unlucky not to score when after a good break out from defence the final shot on goal just went wide of the left post. Connor Murphy had two great chances, one was straight at the keeper and the other just over the crossbar. The deadlock was eventually broken when after some great overlapping interchange between Darren and Dale, Dale's cross into the box was met on the volley by Mikey Wade and gave the Celtic keeper no chance, score 1-0. Villa had several more chances to score but could not find their scoring boots. Half Time 1-0.
In the second half Villa responded to their coaches request to take their chances and Mikey Wade was awarded a penalty after been pulled back by the Celtic defender in the box. Mikey calmly took the penalty himself and scored, 2-0. This seemed to give the Villa lads confidence and they upped the temp of their game, putting the Celtic defenders under constant pressure. The Clonmel Celtic back four were caught guilty of not clearing their lines, when Mark Purcell intercepted a Celtic pass, broke down the right side and placed a lovely cross in front of goal, where Jack Hackett controlled the ball between his knees, turned and placed the ball in the back of the net. 3-0.
Clonmel Celtic tried to get back into the game, but their final pass was not getting to their intended target, and with Villa's back four of Arran Callanan, Colm Pearson, Anthony Walker and Darren McGuire giving a solid defensive performance Celtic were unable to break through. on the wings, Keith and Dale gave a solid performance, both combining well with the mid-field pairing of Marris Baltins and Michael Foley. Up front, Keith Cahill playing behind the front striker gave an exhibition of tackling and in the closing minutes Keith Cahill placed a lovely through pass into the path of Jack who calmly slotted home his second into the bottom left hand corner.
All in all a good result for this Peake Villa Youths team in the opening game of the season. Well done lads.