Dec 24th – Under 12’s Report 2012

The current WGH U12’s squad started out the year being moved into a higher grouping in the U11’s SSL non -competitive league. This was on the back of winning all of their competitive matches in the latter stages of the 2011 season.

The reward for their excellent performances was to be matched up against bigger and better teams in the first half of 2012. The boys coped brilliantly with the step up in class and won all of their games bar one, a home loss to Strand United. There were some memorable results during this phase, notably, recovering from being 3:1 down away to Mallow and coming back to winning 4:3 on a wet and windy evening. Other great results, were a last minute goal to beat Avondale away (Superb header by Tim Hegarty )and in the best performance I have seen from this side, a 4:3 win away to a very good Leeds team. These results mean we won that non-competitive league on points and were then placed in Division 2 for the start of our journey in competitive league games with full sized pitches, goals and official CSL appointed referees.

A rather wet U12 Squad after their final match of 2012.

The squad is now adjusting to playing at this level and the standard is quite high. We have gained 6 points from 6 games and we were genuinely unfortunate not to win a few more games. Overall the team is maturing very nicely with a settled and speedy back four combination led by Ceadan Hogan at centre half. Our defence has some great strength with Seamus Ahern and Ethan Nixon doing very well in the full back roles and all these lads will only improve more over time. In midfield we have plenty of options for both defensive and attacked minded players. Shane O Reilly is consistently producing very brave performances in central midfield and James O Leary, an U11s player, gives us great service on the left wing and has produced some magical goals for us in tight matches Without doubt our stand out player in match after match is our Captain Sean Desmond. He is versatile enough to play anywhere on the pitch but he is most comfortable banging the ball into the back of the net. He has shown great leadership for the team and he is one to watch for the future as he has recently been selected to train with the U12 Cork Development Squad. We are all very proud of Sean’s achievements and we know that Sean will make the most of this opportunity.

The most rewarding thing for me is to see new players join our squad and to see everyone helping each other to get better on the pitch. Colin O Toole, Jack O Grady and Cathal Feehan joined us this season and all of them are doing really well . Some of our established players are also developing very nicely namely Harry Buscievich at midfield and both Colm Curtin and Rob McKenna who share goalkeeping duties. It is important also to mention Gary Doyle and Cathal Fitzgerald who are well able to step up from the U11’s squad to help us out.

The challenge for this squad for 2013 is to up their performances in their remaining matches of the 2012/2013 season and to therefore consolidate their standing in Division 2. We can continue to build from there and if we all stick together there is going to be lots to enjoy for the future.

Sincere thanks to Pat Griffin and Marcus O Reilly for their coaching expertise and all round encouragement and a special thanks to the parents of the players who travel in support week after week. It is much needed and appreciated.

Happy Christmas to everyone, David Hogan, Manager WGH U12s