26/09/05 - Skerries U17's beat Cherry Orchard in SFAI Cup

Cherry Orchard 1     Skerries Town 2

First season in the DDSL & in the first round of the SFAI cup Skerries U 17 travelled to The Lawns, Ballyfermot to take on the top premiership team Cherry Orchard. A team steeped in schoolboy tradition and who are sponsored by premiership club Manchester City.

Skerries got the early break with a fantastic right foot shot from Ross Hopkins from the right hand edge of the penalty box into the bottom left hand corner.

The game was played at a very fast pace with chances at both ends but Skerries were worth their 1–0 lead at the break.

Cherry Orchard started putting on the pressure early in the second half but on 20 minutes Skerries Shane Coleman got on the end of a long pass to steer the ball to the left of the keeper & making it
2–0.

Skerries had a chance to make it 3–0 when Andy Mulvany broke free into the penalty box but as he prepared to shoot a well timed Orchard tackle saw the ball go for a corner.

When Skerries were down to 10 men following injury to Derek O’Brien & unable to get a substitute, Shane O ‘Neill, on in time Orchard broke down the flanks and scored.

The last 20 minutes saw Skerries with their backs to the wall, but for some outstanding saves from, the man of the match, keeper Ronan Jenkinson kept Skerries lead.

The last 10 minutes were frantic, Skerries moved Andy Mulvany into midfield opting to play only 1 up front.
Some incredible tacking from Paul Brennan & Aidan Bolger kept Orchard out. With some excellent defending and support play from Shane Coen his first start in over a year following a long absence due to injury.
Mark Heffernan playing a captains role in front of the back 3 tackled hard with some fine passing encouraged his team to the end.

It was a brilliant performance from every Skerries player and one where every player ran their hearts out, especially “stand in” midfielders Johnny Garrett & Steven Beattie who dominated the midfield & kept Orchard wondering what was happening to them.

Skerries hung on to a memorable & indeed an historic win against the mighty Orchard.

Squad

26/09/05 - 3 in a row for Skerries 10E1

This week saw Skerries 10E1 win their third game in a row without conceding a goal. The game got off to a slow start and lthough the Skerries side had the wind behind them and most of the play was in the Woodlawn end, the first half ended 0-0.

In the second half Skerries picked up the pace. Woodlawn were kept under pressure with a few fine runs from Mark McBride which found Pearse D’Arcy in position in front of the goal. With seven minutes to go Conor Murray attempted to score, the Woodlawn keeper got to it, but Luke O’Connor managed to score on the rebound.

There were a few tense moments for Skerries when Woodlawn were awarded a penalty. However, there were cheers and relief all round when Cian Archbold kept his cool and saved the penalty. The game ended with a well deserved 1-0 win for the Skerries side.

22/09/05 - Under 12A Report from 1999

Below is a report that appeared in a Skerries Town newsletter published for Christmas 1999. Its great to read the names and see that many of them are still playing with Martin and Brendan in the Under 18 DDSL Super League.

Under 12A’s Still In There !

This team under the management of Martin Burke have in recent years tasted an incredible amount of success winning the Brenfer League Under 10A and 11A as well as the Eamon Luden Cup.

Last season beating Dunboyne in a memorable Final in Swords. Currently the team is in a strong league position as well as in the last 32 of the All Ireland Cup and through to the third round of the Kevin Moran Cup. The team has five players on the Brenfer Panel. This team has strength in all areas with a strong defence built on players such as Edward Reilly, Philip Matthews ,Robbie Klingen, Niall O’Reilly; Conor Molloy, James Duff, Rory Noonan and Kevin Keane. The midfield are also strong and creative with players of the calibre of Joe Branagan, David Potter, Paul Boylan and Cathal Hurley. Up front are the very dangerous Stephen Byrne and Gavin Friel .

The majority of the team have been together since under 8 and this is very evident by their style of play. Larry O’Byrne also had a huge imput into the team and only recently retired from managing the team to consentrate on his duties as Club Chairman. Martin Burke is assisted by Brian Potter and Kieran O’Reilly.

This team has tremendous potential in the future.

18/09/05 - Skerries Town progress in FAI Junior Cup

Skerries Town Senior seconds created a little bit of history on Saturday by becoming the first team in the club to play in the FAI Junior Cup. The foray was a successful one beating a very tough St Ita's team in Portrane.

The home team made all the early running and could have been two goals up by the time Eoghan Fagan struck after 25 minutes. Having weathered the storm and taken the lead, Skerries came into their own playing some good football, a spell which culminated in a cracking second goal, again by Fagan.

Darren Greene added a third midway through the second half, just reward for his tireless work up front.

Colm Durkan got his marching orders for needless backchat to the referee with fifteen minutes to go and St Itas immediately pulled a deserved goal back. The home team piled forward but good defending by stand in skipper Ciaran Connolly and good goalkeeping by Keith Farrell meant that they didn't add to their tally.

It was a gutsy team performance and manager Darren Barlow hopes the team can carry this type of attitude into the league and the second round of this cup in two weeks time, when they travel to Castleknock Celtic of the AUL.

18/09/05 - Under 16's Report

The under 16s finally got their season under way but unfortunately began with defeat away toWillows.

They showed great spirit and could very easily have won this game. They went 1 nil up in the 1st minute when Chrissy Brannigan put Danny Cripps through and he beat the keeper with a lob.

Willows hit back soon after and half time saw the game evenly matched. Skerries should have scored a least 2 or 3 more but some fine saves from the willows keeper denied them. Willows scored on the break and Skerries soon hit back with Danny cripps scoring his second to level the score.
Skerries then gave away a silly free kick just outside the penalty area and with the skerries players still debating the foul, Willows took a quick free-kick and scored.

The debate continued and Chrissy Brannigan was dismissed and Skerries saw the game out with ten men.

It was a good effort despite the result and it should not belong before their back to winning ways.

11/09/05 - Under 8A1 off to a great start

Skerries settled into the first quarter which started with great pace and after only 6 minutes came the opening goal from Skerries Cian Coleman, 2 yards inside the half way line, blasted the Ball into the top left corner of the net giving the keeper no chance.

The second quarter saw a slip in skerries defence and resulted in an equaliser. A quiet word from Kieran Mullen and Timmy Dennis at the half way mark paid off and Skerries never missed a beat after that.

Full throttle and concentration by all and after 1 minute into the 3rd quarter Skerries Ben Mc Brien launched a strike from 15 Yards out, into the top corner of the net and repeated the same 5 Minutes later, giving Skerries a 2 Goal lead going into the last quarter.

Victory was sealed 2 minutes in with a beautiful strike by Eoin Dennis into the bottom right corner of the net. A super start to the season and a great performance from all 10 players and subs.

29/08/05 - Under 21's make a winning start against Nockloyn

Dave Barne's  Under 21's made a winning start in their first outing in the Leinster Senior League Saturday Premier Division.

The team consists of the nucleus of last years Under 18 team with some new signings from Rivervalley Rangers and mixed with some experience from last years seconds.

Skerries Town begin well and got the early goal after four minutes when Barry Davey raced through the middle of the Nockloyn defence to cooly put the ball past the oncoming keeper. Davey again came up trumps after twenty minutes, cutting in from the right and this time blasting the ball past the Nockloyn keeper to give Skerries a nice cushion which they held to half-time while playing some delightful football.

Midway through the second half, Graham O'Flaherty received the ball on the edge of the Nockloyn box, sides-tepped the centre half and placed a well hit shot under the keepers body to give Skerries a well earned 3-0 lead.

While most teams would fold after going down three nil, This was not the case in this match. Knocklyn struck back straight away to make it 3-1 and added a second with about ten minutes to go to keep the Skerries defence on thier toes.

Skerries Town weathered the storm and came out worthy winners with a 3-2 away victory.

A delighted Dave Barnes commented after the game. "I was delighted with the performance in the first half. I told the players it would take five or six gamea to gel. You could see as the game went on that a number of players were tiring, but overall I am very pleased."

11/08/05 - Niall O'Reilly makes his Bohemians debut

Congratulations to Niall O'Reilly ex Skerries Town and Belvedere player and son of Kieran and Aileen, who made his senior debut for Bohemians on Thursday last. By all accounts he had a very good debut until he was was injured and carried off near the end of the match.

Niall spent many years playing for Skerries before moving on to Belvedere a number of years ago.

We at Skerries Town FC wish him well.