On Thursday the 3rd of December, Roscommon CBS 1st year football team took on Carrick Community School in their final league group game. CBS were in the driving seat in the group siting at the top of the table going in to the game, needing a win to maintain this spot.
The CBS had a nervy start to the game, and Carrick played the better football. Carrick went 1-1 to no score up before CBS got going. Then the men in red and white struck gold with a goal. A fine move resulted in Aaron Glennon firing the ball the back of the net. Both teams swapped scores before Carrick hit another 1-1 without reply to leave the score 2-3 to 1-1 with only a few minutes left in the half. Then Mr. Bracken and Willie Hegarthy made a tactical decision by bringing on Michael Corcoran which proved a master stroke when the full forward lopped the Carrick goalkeeper to get the CBS back in the game with a goal. That was the last action of the half, with then halftime score line reading Carrick Community School 2-3 to CBS Roscommon 2-1
Whatever the management said to the CBS team at half time must have worked as the CBS started the second half like a train, they scored 5 points without reply with scores from Darragh Hynes and Alan Merriman, and then Carrick got going and had wonderful chances but were stopped by a wonderful performance from Cian Feeley in goal. But Feeley could do nothing to stop Carrick from finally getting their first score of the half with a finely worked goal which was aided by the mucky goalmouth as the initial shot seemed to going wide only for the ball to stop dead in the mud which left a tap in for the Carrick player. CBS had a numerous amount of chances to get scores after the goal but squandered them until Merriman slotted home a free to give his a team a little bit of breathing space. The final few moments were frantic with Carrick desperate to find an equalising goal. Their best opportunity came at the very end of the game when Cian Feeley saved a shot and then the rebound was saved, the play turned into a goalmouth scramble, with nobody knowing where the ball would end up eventually it seemed corner back Briain Costello dived on the ball to stop it from crossing the line! That was the last action of the game as the referee blew the final whistle moments later.
Final Score: CBS Roscommon 2-9 to 3-3 Carrick Community School
This is a great achievement for the team to finish the group with 8 points out of a possible 10 only losing out to St. Nathys earlier on in the year with a last minute goal, so the lads should be proud of themselves! If results go there way they can qualify for the league semi-final in the new-year. Things are looking bright for the CBS in footballing point of view and long may it continue!
By Liam Earley.