For the first time ever CETNS participated in the Football Association of Ireland’s annual Carlow Futsal Soccer Competition for 3rd and 4th class children. The event took place in St. Fiaac’s Sportscentre this past Wednesday.
Our team was placed in a group with Bishop Foley’s N.S. and Carlow N.S. and our brave warrior gave a great account of themselves on the day! Our first two games were narrow losses. However, all the drama came in our third game of the day when we played Carlow N.S. in a winner-take-all contest.
All seemed lost when CETNS went 3 – 0 down early in the second half. Things didn’t look much better with 10 minutes to go when our adversaries lead 4 – 1. However, in true heroic fashion we fought back with all our might and managed to draw level at 4 – 4 with the last kick of normal time!
Then came the dreaded penalties. Our three players who took penalties were Aidan Goss, Matthew Breslin Davis and Conor O’Neill. Our goalkeeper was Tommy Condemi. Carlow N.S. scored their first 2 penalties and we scored all 3 of ours meaning the match and the glory came down to one penalty. Their captain stepped up, but Tommy was just too good a ‘keeper and forced the penalty-taker to miss. What a hero!
The FAI were so impressed with the performance of the players from CETNS that they have promised to come to our School after Christmas for a full day of coaching for our students.
The full squad was:
- Tommy Condemi
- Aidan Goss
- Matthew Breslin Davis
- Craig Dooley Parsons
- Malachy Corbett
- Ben Yeates
- Ronan O’Leary
- Senan Ryan
- Adam Allaiouti
- Conor O’Neill
- James O’Neill
- Bartosz Stelmach (absent)