It was a great day for our Under 14 side as they won a tightly contested Harmon Cup Final on Sunday against St Malachys out in Peamount FC's ground.

The game was scheduled to be played in the AUL but due to the recent bad weather the game was canceled and then re-arranged to be played on Sunday out in Peamount FC's home ground, so there was a bit of confusion with the preparations but the coaching staff where more then happy to get the game played regardless.

The game itself started out quite tight and feisty with these two teams being somewhat local rivals, having already played each other twice this year, with one tight win for shels and another a draw between the two, also to add extra spice to the game both of these teams are still in the running to be crowned league champs!

With the strong winds having an effect on the game Shelbourne were put under pressure right from the start, playing against the wind which St Malachys used to their advantage by pressing high as Shelbourne attempted to play out from the back, some might say Shels where lucky not to concede when a decent shot from outside the box deflected off a Shelbourne defender and thankfully hitting the post.

After that initial 20 minutes where both teams were pretty neck and neck Shelbourne started to get a grip on the match with some great passages of play although they didn't create too many clear goal scoring chances they dominated possession for the rest of the first half and continued this into the second half.

Indeed it was late in the second half when one of these brilliant passages of play lead to Shels one and only goal, with a great interchange of passes between John Mifsud and Eric Wong in the centre of the park the ball was played out to Shelbournes right full Ryan Ashe who immediately set the attack moving forward by passing the ball up the line to Jamie Brittnell who took the ball in and ran right at the St Malachys defense, skipping past two tackles Jamie cut into the box and passed to Jamie Clowry who after an excellent first touch in the box spotted Shels striker Dylan Farrell unmarked and slid the ball into him, Dylan after finding himself in space took a lovely first touch taking him away from the closest defender before showing great calmness and bravery to slot it past the on-rushing St Malachys Goalkeeper.

It was a great credit to St Malachy's that it took a passage of play like this to score against them as they had worked hard all over the pitch and never stopped trying to play football which was great too see.

Our Under 14's side have been having a great season so far and the coaching staff were delighted with the performance and win but keen to stress that while it was brilliant to win the cup the concentration will now shift to the League where there is only five games left and if they can win the five they should run out league winners.

The manager Chicko Mifsud had the following to say after the game,

"It was a tough game with both sides trying their very best to get the win, St Malachys have been tough opposition all year so I knew it would be a tight game as they are a team who never stops working which is a great quality to possess.

Thankfully we got to utilize our passing game against the wind to control the first half and more impressively even with the wind in the second half we made sure to keep that style of play as we believe its the way the game should be played regardless of the weather and again thankfully we were rewarded for sticking to our principles on that with a well worked goal.

It was great for us as a team to be rewarded by winning the cup as the lads have all worked hard so far this season but we cant let our concentration get away from the priority of promotion to the DDSL Premier and indeed winning the league to get it, these lads deserve to be playing Premier football and as a club it is vital we have teams in premier football as we need this age group to be ready to challenge for a spot in the Shels U17s league of Ireland Elite team in the next year or so and the challenge of Premier football is key to our plans for that"

With Chicko and his assistant Gary Deegan giving their all to an excellent group of players we have no doubt here at Shelbourne Youth Academy that they will continue to do us proud and work hard together.

Congratulations again lads and best of luck in your remaining games!