Our under 13A's took on Portlaoise in the quarter finals of the South Leinster Regional Area of the SFAI National cup yesterday afternoon. Portlaoise were the reigning South Leinster champions after defeating Rovers in the final last season. The lads knew it would be a tough assignment taking on the champions in their own backyard. The lads went about their business in a professional manner to record an excellent 2-0 win in what was a fantastic team performance from all 14 players on duty.
It took the lads fifteen minutes to settle into the game, after a nervy start. Both sides had chances, but Rovers lacked the cutting edge up front in the early stages. Zack Kavanagh’s introduction at half time for his Rovers debut proved the difference, scoring the first goal to put Rovers one up. Richie Carton and David McCormack put in a lot of industrious work in that first half. The whole team combined well in the second period to really attack the home side, and they got their just rewards when David McCormack won a deserved penalty. Sam Conyard stepped up bravely to make it 2-0 and put Rovers in the driving seat. Sam Czwalina made some fantastic saves at critical points in the match to preserve the Rovers lead. After such a superb team performance it would be hard to pick a man of the match, but when push comes to shove you would have to go with Tommy Morrissey, Tommy led his team as Captain and ran himself into the ground, Swazy, Mo and Lenny couldn’t have been any prouder of the team's performance. It's on now to the National open draw and, of course the semi final of South Leinster, well done lads.