Kinvara Utd 2-3 Athenry B (AET)
Our Men's team were highly unfortunate not to beat Athenry on a very windy Saturday evening as they played out 120 minutes of football in Maree.
Playing into the wind in the first half it was our lads that started strongest, opening the scoring through a fine counter attack with a fine pass from Ross Albertini finding Joshua Medina who beat the keeper to put us 1-0 ahead.
Kinvara were 2-0 up 5 minutes later, another fine counter attack saw Josh go from goalscorer to creator as he played a ball in to Alan Organ who calmly finished into the Athenry net.
Athenry were shook and they reacted strongly, using the wind to their advantage and pressing hard to get back in the game and by half time they had brought it back to 2-2.
No goals in the second half, both teams probing for a winner but Kinvara defended well through Centre Backs Adam Walsh and Niall Bermingham with goalkeeper Rory Boyle making some great saves to keep Athenry at bay. Extra time ensued and it looked like it would go to penalties with very little between both teams, however with 2 minutes to go there was a scramble in the Kinvara box and an Athenry boot managed to poke the ball home to put Athenry into the next round.
A strong performance by Kinvara and plenty to build on - starting next week where we again face Athenry this time in the Division 2 league.
Kinvara: Rory Boyle, Conor McGrath, Eoghan Hanley, Adam Walsh, Niall Bermingham, Johnny Linnane (c), Ross Albertini, Harry Mulleady, Joshua Medina, Cathal Casey, Alan Organ.
Subs: Ivan Neilan, Jack O'Connor, Paul Madden, Andrew Hogan, Aran Waterhouse, Damien McNamara, Allen Moran, Hugh McGovern, Michael Costello, Cathal Murray.
Manager: Mikey Concannon
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