Promotion hopefulls Afton Villa secured a 3-1 victory over De Courcey Albion sunday past in a lively encounter though the result probably doesn’t do the Albion team justice.

Albion started the much brighter of the 2 teams with some excellent passing in all areas of the park. Jason O’Riordan & Seamus O’Callaghan looked bright & used their creativity well in centre mid while JP Hayes & Gearoid Coholan were using the flanks to great effect. Afton Villa opened the scoring against the run of play when Conor Hurley unfortunatley slipped to let the striker through to beat Michael Walsh. The albion heads didn’t drop though and picked up where they left off right from re-start once again looking the much more dangerous of the teams. 1-0 Afton Villa at half time.

For the opening 10 minutes of the 2nd half Afton Villa were in control until Seamus O’Callaghan took control of the ball from his own half, played the ball to Gearoid Coholan on the left who passed off quickly to Ronan O’Driscoll who in turn laid off to O’Callaghan who all the time was darting through midfield. O’Callaghan then took on 4/5 players and found himself in a 1 on 1 with the impressive Villa keeper who he rounded and slotted the ball into the goal with his left. Probably the goal of the season as far as Albion are concerned. 1-1 and deservedly so. Villa’s second goal came within minutes. It came from a throw in on the left which saw some ping pong in the box and eventually crept over the line. 10 minutes later the ball was in the net again after the striker beat Michael Walsh to the ball to head it over the Albion keeper and into the net. Albion pressed for the remainder of the game and hit the outside post from James O’Driscoll on the left, who also came close with 2 excellently taken free kicks that both required excllent stops from the Villa keeper. JP Hayes was unlucky for the 2nd match running, after some great skill hit the inside post. Some chances also fell to Noel Twomey, Ronan O’Driscoll & Martin Ryan before the ref blew for full time. A great display from an Albion team in transition who were unlucky not to come away with a point.

Team: Michael Walsh(GK), Conor Hurley(RB), James O’Driscoll(LB), Colm Walsh(CB), Colm O’Donovan(CB), JP Hayes(RM), Gearoid Coholan(LM), Jason O’Riordan(CM), Seamus O’Callaghan(CM), Noel Twomey(F), Ronan O’Driscoll(F). Subs: Martin Ryan for Ronan O’Driscoll(’80). Kevin O’Neill.

A big thanks to our ball boy for the game, Scratch.