Down But Not Out

We will leave the reflections on the season as a whole for another week. For now, a brief report on the last tournament of the year in Maastricht. Our strongest team travelled to play in the toughest of groups with Den Hague and Budapest.

First up were Den Hague. They travelled en masse and had a few unfamiliar recruits in their ranks. They're a big physical team and the tight pitch was definitly in their favour. We lost 2-6 to 1-5, conceding two poor goals in the first half. The tackles were uncompromising but again our discipline was poor as we conceded silly frees. Its been our achilles all year. Sheanon gave us hope with a goal after some quick thinking from David Collins but the gap was too great. It was not to be and it left us needing a win against Budapest to quaify.

So, we moved to the open spaces of the main pitch for the next fixture. Where Den Hague were big, Budapest were their equals if not bigger. We opted to play Rochey as a third midfielder and leaving Eoin inside on his own. Enda and Olof were to break ball and myself and Rochey were to hoover it up. It was working a treat as we got ball forward and men followed quickly. There was a point in it just before half-time when Rochey landed on a straight leg and joined a growing list of our team who have been carted off to hospital during the year. To add to that, we already had to withdraw David Collins before the game even started.

Budapest hit us early in the second half and we were left chasing the game. Rochey's absence disrupted our plan and we had no replica to put in his place. We created lots of chances though but may have sought goals to early. The defeat left us in a 5th/6th place playoff against Rennes which we won at a canter, despite some awful defending in the first half. Cluxton was sprung from goal and delivered a green flag at the opposite end with the last kick of our season and maybe his Belgian sojourn.

As I said, we can reflect later on the season as a whole but one plus this year has been the team spirit. We've had no defections (permanent anyway!), no big fall-outs and left Maastricht with a solid basis to build upon next year.

The Hague won it overall and they deserved to. It was a competitive year and they can be proud to have come out on top. Our Ladies took the their tournment and overall trophy, thanks in a large part to a flurry of goals from their sharp shooter Caragh O'Connor.

Our B's had their strongest team of the year and must feel they underachieved somewhat. Narrow defeats could easily have been narrow victories and the story could have been told very differently. The spirit on their side of the camp remains upbeat too and they will look with optimisim to 2010.

On Saturday, there were over 60 people in Maastricht from Belgium G.A.A. There is no doubt that results and winning are important but as Mide alluded to in her victory speech, the club hasn't just won trophies in the last two years, it has built a community. The evidence of that was clear to see straight through from 7am at Shuman roundabout on Saturday morning until 6am in Celtica in the early hours of Monday.

Roll on 2010.