Courtesy: FAI Web Site

Bohemians Snatch First Victory in FAI eircom Under 21 Futsal League

Monday, 26 February 2007

Bohemians (7) 12 Dundalk (2) 5

Sean Trout opened the scoring for Bohemians six minutes in when he cut in from the right and drilled home with his left foot.

Trout then finished off a brilliant link-up with Alan Lynch to slot home number two for Bohs in the ninth minute.

Dundalk’s reaction was immediate with the impressive Barry Woods bursting through to fire past the helpless Keith Gallagher within a matter of seconds.

The scoring continued at pace with Michael Mooney making it 3-1 to the Gypsies a minute later with a thumping drive. Lynch then extended that lead with another cracking effort.

Dundalk were reeling now and Sean Fay put Bohs 5-1 up in the 11th minute as the onslaught continued and he added another two minutes later.

The Lilywhites got some consolation when Martin Dullaghan pulled one back for them after a sublime flick from Shane Greene put him through.

Unfortunately for the Louthmen, Mooney replied soon after for Bohs to give them a 7-2 lead at the break and Brian Kelly increased the Bohs lead four minutes after the restart.

Woods produced a nice strike to grab number three for Dundalk but Lynch soon responded for Bohs.

A bad day got worse for Dundalk when Liam Crawley was dismissed for handling on the line. Mooney converted the penalty to make the score 10-3.

Under futsal rules if a player is sent-off he can’t come back on but his team can replace him after two minutes or if they conceded a goal before that time has elapsed.

Woods completed his hat-trick with four minutes left to cap off an excellent personal display for the Dundalk striker. Trout then became the third hat-trick hero of the day when he made it 11-4.

Mooney capped off an impressive individual display for the victors when he grabbed his fourth goal of the day before Gerard Connolly scored Dundalk’s fifth.

Bohemians: Keith Gallagher; Michael Mooney, Brian Kelly, James Lee, Colin Pugh, Sean Fay, Sean Trout, Alan Lynch, Philip McDonagh, Killian O’Grady. Goals: Mooney 4 (1 pen), Trout 3, Lynch 2, Fay 2, Kelly

Dundalk: Gerard Connolly; Liam Crawley, Paudi Blair, Shane Greene, Paddy O’Connor, Declan Moran, Barry Woods, Martin Dullaghan, Sean Conlon. Goals: Woods 3, Greene, Connolly.


Monaghan Utd (4) 4 St Patrick’s Athletic (5) 8

St Patrick's Athletic produced a dominant second half display to clinch their first win of the eircom FAI Under-21 Futsal League at DCU.

St Pat’s opened the scoring after just 18 seconds when Anto Costigan slammed home from a tight angle and it lead to a lightening start for the Dubliners.

Brian Rooney extended their lead with a powerful strike two minutes later and within a minute Aaron Crowther had made it 3-0 then Adam El Fridah made it four with a neat finish.

Patrick Finnegan gave United a little bit of hope when he found the net with an excellent strike in the ninth minute to bring it back to 4-1.

A neat bit of play from Stephen Finnegan set Monaghan up for their second, Finnegan’s pass landing perfectly for Tommy Toal to poke home from close range.

Finnegan was involved once again when Monaghan came back to 4-3, Finnegan played a one-two from a corner to set Shane Reavey up to convert.

After coming close to equalising, United were done on the break with Kevin Cornwall curling into the top corner after good work by Rooney.

Finnegan, capped by the Republic of Ireland under-19s, showed his class again with a great strike to make it 5-4.

After a tight start to the second half, Cornwall put the Saints further ahead six minutes after the restart with a decent shot on the turn.

Barry Slattery then made it 7-4 with some lovely footwork to round keeper Ronan McGann before knocking it home then a clever El Fridah back-heel set-up Crowther to make it 8-4.

Monaghan Utd: Ronan McGann; Patrick Finnegan, Stephen Finnegan, Shane Reavey, Ian McCluskey, Tommy Toal, Niall Flynn, Sarto Quigley. Goals: P Finnegan, Toal, Reavey, S Finnegan.

St Patrick’s Athletic: Brendan Clarke; Joe Hayden, Brian Rooney, Adam El Fridah, Kevin Cornwall, Adam Crowther, Nigel Pearson, Ross O’Toole, Darryl Moore, Barry Slattery. Goals: Costigan, Rooney, Crowther 2, El Fridah, Cornwall 2, Slattery.



Courtesy: FAI Web Site


Futsal National Consultation Workshop kick off in Limerick

Monday, 26 February 2007

The Football Association of Ireland will be holding the first of two Open FUTSAL Consultation Workshop on Wednesday the 28th of February 2007 at the Castletroy Park Hotel, Limerick from 7 – 9 pm.
The second workshop takes place in Dublin on Monday, March 5th. Futsal is the official UEFA and FIFA version of indoor 5 a side soccer and is considered to be the World’s fastest growing indoor sport.

The Open Consultation Workshops form part of the ongoing consultative process towards the development of a Strategy to promote and develop the sport of Futsal in Ireland.
This workshop is part of a developmental process which began in early 2006 and has already involved extensive discussions with key stakeholders both internal and external to the FAI.

Research on best practice within other countries in the development of FUTSAL has also been undertaken. A broad range of participants have been invited to contribute to the open consultation. We hope that the valuable input from this day will form a major part of our Strategic Plan to promote and develop this exciting new initiative.

The second Open Consultation workshop will take place on Monday 5th March in the Great Southern Hotel, Dublin Airport between 7 – 9pm.

For further information, please contact FAI Futsal Co-ordinator, Derek O' Neill on: derek.oneill@fai.ie




Courtesy: FAI Web Site


Futsal League Week 3 Set for Blanchardstown

Friday, 02 March 2007

Blachardstown Institute of Technology is the host venue this week after exciting Saturdays in the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght and Dublin City University.

Saturday’s opening game promises to be an absolute belter as unbeaten Shamrock Rovers face St Patrick’s Athletic, who picked up their first win last week.

The Hoops have been full of goals so far with 18-year-old Ciaran Kilduff their main man – he smashed an astonishing seven goals against UCD last week.

Kilduff’s winner in that 7-6 cracker came with just three seconds left to prove that in futsal you truly never can switch off until the hooter sounds.

With Dane Massey and Brendan Dawson impressing in their opening game, Rovers have an impressive selection but the Saints will be looking to Kevin Cornwall to inspire them.

The second fixture sees Monaghan United look for their first win while UCD will bid to bounce back from their disappointment against the Hoops.

Monaghan may not have won a game yet but with Stephen Finnegan, Sarto Quigley and Shane Reavey impressing they do not lack for quality.

The Students have real quality with Greg Bolger and Damien Kelly looking good assets but they will have to adapt to the loss of Kieran Harte to Shelbourne this week.

Bray Wanderers have started well with a win and a draw from their opening fixtures but they face a Dundalk side looking to bounce back after defeat to Bohemians last week.

Wanderers have some impressive talents with David O’Sullivan and Niall Merriman showing real quality in front of goal. Dundalk’s main threat appears to be Barry Woods.

In the final fixture on Saturday Bohemians will look to build on their first win when they take on a Drogheda United side that drew its opening two games.

With Gavin Whelan, Aaron Timmons and Monday Awoyimi in their ranks, United are a hard side to beat but the likes of Ian Byrne, Michael Mooney and Alan Lynch are big assets for Bohs.




Courtesy: FAI Web Site


Shamrock Rovers and Bray win again in Futsal eircom League

Sunday, 04 March 2007 Section: eircom League

Shamrock Rovers 8 - 1 St. Patrick’s Athletic

SHAMROCK ROVERS maintained their 100 per cent record with an emphatic victory over St Patrick’s Athletic in week three of the FAI eircom under-21 Futsal League on Saturday.

A slick first half display by the Hoops saw them dominate proceedings in the day’s opening fixture at IT Blanchardstown.

Tactical astuteness and lightning counter attacks in which Ciaran Kilduff and Dane Massey were particularly influential saw Rovers run up a 5-0 half time lead.

St Pat’s started much brighter in the second half with Joey Hayden pulling a goal back but a great move between Massey and David Vickery saw Vickery extend Rovers’ lead to 6-1.

The second half was a lot tighter with St Pat’s having more of the possession but the resolute Rovers’ defence were determined not to concede any more goals.

Within the final five minutes, the mercurial Kilduff scored his fourth and fifth goals of the match to secure an 8-1 win for the Hoops and keep them in the driving seat going into week four.

Shamrock Rovers: John Perkins; Mark Langtry, Trevor Boyle, David Vickery, Stephen Donegan, Brendan Dawson, Dean Lawrence, Ciaran Kilduff, Keith Lyons, Dane Massey, Darren Murphy.
Goals: Kilduff 5, Massey, Langtry, Vickery.

St. Patrick’s Athletic: Gary Neville, Joe Hayden, Brian Rooney, Adam El Fridah, Anthony Costigan, Adam Crowther, Nigel Pearson, Ross O’Toole, Darryl Moore, Barry Slattery.
Goals: Hayden.
Man of the match: Kilduff (Rovers)


Bray Wanderers 8 – 7 Dundalk

BRAY maintained their unbeaten record in a testing clash with Dundalk that was high in skill and endeavour.

The opening exchanges saw Bray take the lead through David O’Sullivan but this was short lived as Barry Woods soon claimed an equaliser for Dundalk.

Good skill from Woods then set up man of the match Shane Grimes to give the Louthmen a 2-1 lead. However, O’Sullivan replied for Bray on 15 minutes to even things up.

An enthralling match was gathering momentum and a mistake in the Dundalk defence saw Jonathan Meagher edge Bray ahead. The impressive O’Sullivan then claimed his hat trick to give Bray a 4-2 interval lead.

The goal of the game saw Dundalk’s Shane Grimes race down the left and fire an unstoppable shot into the roof of the Bray net to reduce Bray s lead to 4-3. Shane Green then produced a superb low drive to level for Dundalk.

Meagher then rifled a volley into the net after chesting a long pass from Fitzgerald and a clever Paul Dunphy dribble and shot saw the Seasiders extend their lead to 6-4.

However, Dundalk wouldn’t lie down and Paddy O’Connor’s goal reduced the deficit. Niall Merriman climbed back into the top scorers chart again with a goal of quality before the untiring Jack Douglas set up Fitzgerald to make it 8-5 to Bray.

However, once again, Dundalk rallied and although Grimes ensured a tight finish with a late brace of goals, Bray were not to be denied this hard fought win. All credit to both sides for a producing a thrilling game!

Bray Wanderers: Gavin Snodgrass; Niall Merriman, Jack Douglas, Sean Fitzgerald, David O’Sullivan, Jonathan Meagher, Mark Duggan, Paul Dunphy, James O’Shea, Robert Manley.
Goals: O’Sullivan 3, Meagher 2, Dunphy, Merriman, Fitzgerald.

Dundalk: Donal Green; Ger Connolly, Shane Grimes, Stefan McKevitt, Shane Greene, Paddy O’Connor, Declan Moran, Barry Woods, Martin Dellagher, Sean Conlon.
Goals: Grimes 4, Woods, O’Connor, S. Green
Man of the Match: Shane Grimes (Dundalk)


Bohemians 9 – 8 Drogheda United

BOHEMIANS ended Drogheda United’s unbeaten run in another thriller at IT Blanchardstown on Saturday.

Drogheda raced into a 2-0 lead courtesy of two strikes from Monday Awoyomi, one of which was the first headed goal recorded in the FAI Futsal League!

Paul Cobbe then rounded the Bohs’ goalkeeper Keith Gallagher to make it 3-0 and force Bohs into a strategy rethink.

Bohs’ Alan Lynch showed great composure to round a defender and the Drogs goalie Gabriel Sabatini to pull one back for his side.

However, Awoyomi struck again to record the third of his five goal haul to make it 4-1.

Bohs’ Philip McDonagh narrowed the lead to 4-2 before a sweet left foot finish from team mate Brian Kelly and a volleyed finish from Lynch leveled matters.

Lynch then grabbed his hat-trick to edge Bohs in front but that man Awoyomi wasn’t finished yet and equalised with his fourth of the game to make it 5-5 going into the break.

Three minutes into the second half, Awoyomi seized on a misplaced pass near the Bohs’ goal to put Drogs in the driving seat again but that was short lived with Cillian O’Grady firing Bohs back into the game to make it 6-6.

Drogs were living dangerously with a five foul count on the board but a fierce shot from Gareth Whelan put them in front. The fouls were, however, to prove costly as Lynch equalised from a 10 metre penalty.

A terrific performance from Sabatini in the Drogs’ goal kept out a sustained Bohs’ onslaught and his penalty save from Lynch was a particular highlight of his display.

But Ian Byrne was first to react to the rebound and make it 8-7 for Bohs.

McDonagh seemed to have made it safe for Bohs with their ninth goal but a penalty from Gareth Whelan meant that Bohs had to endure a nervous climax.

Bohemians: Keith Gallagher; Eddie McSweeney, Michael Mooney, Denis Moran, Cillian O’Grady, Sean Fay, Ian Byrne, Brian Kelly, Philip McDonagh, Alan Lynch, James Lee, Sean Trout.
Goals: Lynch 4, McDonagh 2, Kelly, O Grady, Byrne

Drogheda Utd: Gabriel Sabatini; Gareth Whelan, Jamie Walsh, Monday Awoyomi, Paul Cobbe, Andrew Haggerman, Polnaref Matundo.
Goals: Awoyomi 5, Whelan 2, Cobbe

Man of the match: Lynch (Bohemians).

The other result of the day was UCD 3 – 0 Monaghan Utd



Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com