The U14 football teams commenced their league competition on Saturday February 4^th. Team 1, who are in division 2, welcomed Naomh Barrog to Pairc Ui Bhriain and team 2, who are in division 8, travelled to Johnstown to play Cuala C.

Both panels have been putting in a huge effort since training recommenced and hopes were high for both teams to get off to a winning start. Team 1 started very well against Barrog and were 5 points up at half time on a score-line of 0-6 to 0-1. The Olaf’s points came from Sean McDaid, Sean Flynn, Glenn Soraghan and 2 from last year’s player of the year, Joseph Raferty. Olaf’s played with the wind in the first half and were aware that 5 points wasn’t a huge margin given the conditions. However, they started the second half very well and with their first attack Joseph Raferty blasted the ball to the net to extend the lead to 8 points. Barrog were undeterred by this setback and started to claw back the lead and within 15 minutes, they were back on level terms. It was end to end stuff for the remainder of the game. Goals from Joseph Raferty (his second of the game), Eoin Foley and Matthew O’Kelly kept Olaf’s in the game. However, whenever Olaf’s got these scores, Barrog came straight back at them and scored at the other end. The wind got stronger towards the end of the game and certainly was a factor in helping Barrog gain the upper hand where they scored 5 points without reply and was enough to see them secure victory on a final score of Olaf’s 4-6 Naomh Barrog 5-10. The panel on Saturday was Jack Dalton, Rory Gallagher, Conor Kirwan, Tom McGurk, Fiachra O’Sullivan, Eoin Foley (1-1), Matthew Deering, Sean MacDaid (0-1), Tom Keane, Glenn Soraghan (0-1), Joseph Rafferty (2-2), Cian Power Kelly, Jamie Deasy, David Breathnach, Sean Flynn (0-1), Daragh Colman and Matthew O’Kelly (1-0).

Team 2 put in a great performance and had a great win over Cuala C. They got off to a whirlwind start and were 2-1 to 0-0 up after 5 minutes with goals from Adam O'Callaghan and Fiachra McLoughlin and a point from Conor Brady. They kept the pressure up and were well clear at half time. The second half was more or less the same with Olaf's adding another 3-7 to their total. This was a magnificent performance by the team which we hope will be repeated for the remainder of the league. Special mention must go to Sean Sutton for his performance on Saturday. Sean, an avid Liverpool supporter, scored as many goals on Saturday as Liverpool striker Andy Carroll has scored since he joined Liverpool. Team managers Paul Murphy and Stephen Stapleton have been instructed not to take any calls from Kenny Dalglish this week! The panel on Saturday was Ben Thornton, Ryan Murphy, Andrew Hayes, Cian McDaid, Gavin Soraghan (0-1), Alex Start, James Keogh, Cian DeBurca (1-4), Conor Brady (1-3), Jordan O'Connor (0-2), Tristan Kennedy, Ross Bradshaw (2-1), Fiachra McLoughlin (2-1), Sean Sutton (6-1), Adam O'Callaghan (1-0), Rory Geoghegan, Eric Stapleton, Daniel Stapleton.