Our under 12A’s welcomed Arklow Town to Whitegates this morning in their second match of this year’s season. The home team were eager to secure their first win of the campaign and had the perfect start when Mikey O’Neill intercepted a goal kick and duly slotted the ball into the corner of the net to put Rovers 1-0 up. O’Neill was at it again in the 21st minute when he latched onto a clever pass from Finn Murphy to double the lead. Arklow pressed for an opener before the half time break but the Rovers rear guard of Nadal Kingne & Jack Collins and keepers Harry Waite & Ben Morrissey were keeping Arklow at bay. Arklow Town started the second half strong only to be foiled by a great through ball from Kevin Yan into the stride of Mikey O’Neill who tucked away a brilliant counter attacking goal to complete his hat-trick and make it four goals in two games. To their credit, Arklow Town heads didn’t drop, and they kept plugging away at the Rovers defence. The match was toing and froing until Alessio Coppola let off a goal bound belter that could only be parried by the keeper into the on rushing Murphy to tap home and complete the scoring, making it 4-0 to Rovers at the final whistle. A big thanks to Arklow Town for the game and we look forward to another great tussle in the future.