Pairc Ciceam is turning out to be a “field of dreams” for the U14 division 2 team. Their league game against Ballymun Kickhams was scheduled for Pairc Ui Bhriain but due to the inclement weather, the pitch was closed. CCC2 regulations state that if the home team’s pitch is unplayable and the away team pitch is playable, then the game must be played in the away team’s pitch. As Ballymun have a fantastic all-weather pitch at their disposal, this meant that another trip up the M50 was on the cards.  The U14 team last played on this pitch just 5 short weeks ago in the Dublin Féile Peil when they won 2 of their 3 games so playing on the all-weather pitch again was something they could look forward to. 

Going into the game the team was down 2 or 3 regular players due to holidays. However, as the club is fortunate to have 2 teams in the U14 league they were able to call on players to fill in. During the weekly training sessions, team manager Cathal Soraghan keeps emphasising to the players that the strength of both teams isn’t down to a couple of players but it’s down to the strength we have in numbers. This was evident on Saturday when the players who were called up all turned in magnificent displays and have given Cathal and his selectors a selection headache for the upcoming games.

In this game, the team performed even better than they did in the Féile and ran out comfortable winners on a final score line of Olaf’s 9-12 Ballymun Kickhams 0-8.

All 17 players turned in exceptional performances but special mention should go to goalkeeper Jack Dalton who made 3 marvellous saves early on in the game. At the time he made the saves, there was only 4 points between the teams and if Ballymun had scored even one of these attempts, it would have made things a lot harder for Olaf’s.

The panel on Saturday was Jack Dalton, Rory Gallagher, Conor Kirwan, Tom McGuirk, Fiachra O’Sullivan, Eoin Foley (0-1), Cian DeBurca, Sean McDaid (1-2), Joseph Rafferty (1-1), Glenn Soraghan (0-4), Sean Flynn (1-2), Matthew O’Kelly (2-1), Luke Doran (1-0), Tom Keane (3-0), Adam O’Callaghan (0-1), Ben Thornton and Darragh Coleman.

This team will not get things as easy in their next game when they play Dublin Féile Peil division 2 winners Kilmacud Crokes on Thursday June 21st.  As in the Ballymun Kickhams game, the team will be down a few players due to holidays but the strength of the whole panel will come to the rescue again for that game.