Corkbeg’s under 18’s are still looking for their first points of the season after been beaten 5-4 by Wilton on a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon in Wilton’s excellent pitch on the Lee road.
The Beg were missing a few players. plus manager supreme John o Regan, who was out celebrating his 40th birthday . Ex manager Patrick Higgins took over the reigns for the day with the other current manager Scott Wilson and they boldly went with a 3-5-2 formation from the start. An early injury to David Hickman, meant Sean Carroll was introduced early to proceedings. Wilton soon went 1 up with a neat strike but the Beg held their own and were level on 20 mins, when Sam Murphy scored after Killian O Driscolls great through-ball to Josh Leahy was blocked by the combination of goalie and defender, leaving Walsh to lob into an unattended net from 20 yards.
Both teams were playing good football, but Wilton had the better chances and they took a 2-1 lead on 37 mins. In fact, John Manning in goal had to make 2 or 3 smart saves to keep the deficit to 1 at half-time.
The Beg switched to 4-3-3 for the second half and with Gift Obiwuru and Cian Keohane getting on top in midfield and Sam Murphy starting to shine up front. The Beg were getting back into the game. Sam blasted unlucky over when in a good position and then had another one saved by the Wilton keeper. Wilton threatened on the break, but with Christophe Riff , Cian Maguire, Conor O Brien and Jay Wilson all putting in massive shifts, the Beg were still in the game and equalized on 57 mins. A great pass from Sam saw Killian going in to challenge the keeper and centre back and after a lucky break the ball ricocheted and rolled into the Wilton net. With the game in the melting pot both sides had chances, but Wilton were ahead again on 67 mins when some poor Beg defending was punished.
The Beg, however, never stopped fighting and 5 mins later, we were level again after a great Keohane corner was headed back by Christophe for Gift Obiwuru to stab home and get the goal his performance deserved.
It got better for the Beg when on 76 mins, when after some great teamwork down the wing Sam Murphy was released in the box and after a great turn he fired home. With the wind in their sails the Beg were hoping to hold out for victory but a very soft penalty was awarded to Wilton on 81 mins which was fired home (pictured) and then barely 2 mins later, Wilton struck again to make it 5-4 to the home side.
The Beg looked very leg weary at this stage, but sub Josh Murray had a late chance to salvage a point but fired straight at the keeper from 20 yards.
A good performance all round by the Beg with the result just not going their way and Cian Keohane getting the nod for man of the match with his tireless running just shading two goal Sam Murphy.