• 

  Academy

• Tuesday November 4th, 2008 @ 8:36

SAINTS GO TOP

THE SAINTS under 14 squad went top of their division at the weekend. At home to Leicester Celtic this young Pats team stormed into a 3-0 halftime lead. There was barely a minute on the clock when a Keifer Byrne free-kick was headed goalward by Karl Tims… but just as it looked like the Leicester goalkeeper was about to collect safely, Danny O'Leary popped up to loop the ball over him and into the net.

The Saints now began to dominate the exchanges, their short passing game causing Leicester all sorts of problems. Will McMahon was a constant threat and big centre forward, Karl Tims saw two great efforts go narrowly wide.

But for all their dominance Pats were still only one goal to the good. Then a long clearance from defence to stop another Saints attack was picked up by McMahon wide on the right.

McMahon threaded the ball through to Gary Molloy who laid the ball back into the path of Craig Smithers, another one two between Smithers and Molloy put Smithers on the edge of the box, a left foot strike by the Pats number 4 and they were two up.

Just as the half was coming to a close, Pats got their third, great interplay again on the edge of the Leicester box saw Keifer Byrne unleash a shot which squirmed under the Leicester goalkeeper's body, 3-0 at the break.

To Leicester's credit they never gave up and fought back in the second half. Raiding down the Saints right they pulled back two goals in quick succession. But Pats kept playing their football and on more than one occasion should have sealed the game.

It wasn't until the 8 minutes from the end when the Leicester goalkeeper parried Karl Tims' shot into the path of Aaron Oliver who applied the finish to a great Pats performance, 4-2 at the final whistle.