U-14 Connacht Cup Final

Mervue Utd 4-0 Castlebar Celtic

Mervue Utd’s U-14 team turned in an impressive display to retain the U-14 Connacht Cup following a 4-0 defeat of Mayo side, Castlebar Celtic, at Strand Celtic’s grounds in Sligo on Saturday afternoon.

Not to be outdone by their U-12 clubmates who had earlier in the day captured their provincial title with an equally impressive display, the club's U-14's made no mistake with the winning of this Connacht Cup title.

Two goals in either half were enough to see Coley Kelly and Pa O’Connell’s young side capture the provincial title for a second year in succession for the club as they claimed a league and cup double and still have a possible treble with the GFA Cup final to play.

They had to weather a good early start by Castlebar Celtic as the Mayo side threatened on a number of occasions in the opening 15 minutes as their striker shot just past the post and Hakeen Ryan did well to block away another effort from the same player.

Colin Kelly fired Mervue’s first real threat on 19 minutes as the Castlebar keeper had to be alert to push away his effort at the near post for a corner after good work from the Mervue midfielder had created the opportunity inside the box.

Mervue hit the front on the half hour mark as Dean Murphy picked up a pass from Harry O’Gorman and unleashed a cracking strike from 25 yards which the keeper could only manage to get his fingertips to as the ball nestled in the corner of the net.

They quickly doubled that lead on 33 minutes after good work by Michael Okoye on the right saw his shot across the goalmouth eventually picked up by Colin Kelly and he coolly stroke the ball into the corner of the net to give Mervue a 2-0 half time lead.

Mervue continued were they had left off before the break as they broke forward at every opportunity with Harry O’Gorman and Colin Kelly excellent in midfield, while Keelan Creaven, Hakeem Ryan, Blake Cummins and Mark O’Brien were giving very little away to Castlebar at the back.

Mervue put the result beyond doubt in the 56^th minute as Matthew Cooley did very well before setting Colin Kelly up and he made no mistake firing into the far corner from inside the box for his second of the afternoon.

They continued to push forward and centre forward Matthew Cooley added the fourth and final goal with a brilliant finish as he struck a powerful effort past the Castlebar Celtic keeper from just inside the box on 71 minutes to ensure an impressive win.

With both the Premier Division title and the Connacht Cup title now captured Coley Kelly and Pa O’Connell’s side will now be concentrating on securing a treble with a GFA Cup final in the coming weeks to round off what has been an excellent season having only suffered one defeat, in the SFAI semi-final to Belvedere, all season.

Mervue Utd: Sam O’Gorman (Robert Carr); Blake Cummins (Mark Melody), Mark O’Brien, Hakeem Ryan, Harry O’Gorman; Michael Okoye (Sean O’Brien), Keelan Creaven, Dean Murphy, Dylan Killilea (Mikey Devaney 41); Colin Kelly, Matthew Cooley. Subs: Josh Byrnes, James Barclay, Anjorin Adeeko and Charlie Concannon.