Bacela Brilliance in Cobh and the Girls Down Dundalk

After the U19 girls won their semi-final last week, there was further Shield success for the female side of the Waterford FC academy on Saturday when the Under-17s reached the last four with a comfortable 3-0 quarter-final win away to Dundalk. In what was an excellent all-round team performance, three goals in a sixteen-minute spell either side of half-time put the Blues in firm command and they cruised through in the end.

Brendan White’s team had to overcome a challenging start as they lost both Elle Kavanagh and Abbie Gaffney to injury and it took a little while to break Dundalk down. The breakthrough came in the 36th minute with the excellent Jodie Roche, a former Carrick United schoolgirl, scoring directly from a corner kick to give the visitors a deserved lead at the halfway stage.

Two quickfire goals in the second half then put the game to bed with Megan O’Regan playing a lovely throughball for Katie Tomkins to latch on to and the prolific striker tucked it away nicely into the bottom corner in the 49th minute. The best goal of the day came just three minutes later when full back Demi Murphy played the ball into Kate Dalton, who bounced it to Tomkins. Having already scored, Tomkins turned provider by playing a neat pass around the corner for Eva O’Gorman to take one touch and rocket the ball to the roof of the net. Waterford will now face Finn Harps in the Shield semi-final next weekend.

A big win for the girls in Oriel Park (Photo - Waterford FC)

Their counterparts – the Under-17 boys – also had a great away win at the weekend as they emerged 2-1 victors in Cobh’s St Colman’s Park and earning a Tier Two quarter-final, coincidentally, against Finn Harps too. These Munster derbies are always fiercely competitive and it was Ramblers who took an early lead through Shay McCarthy, but the Blues were in front by the half-hour mark with two terrific finishes. Ben Fahey controlled a Mason Murphy throughball just inside Cobh’s half, burst through the back four and blasted the ball over goalkeeper Luke Morrissey’s head into top left corner just as he was about to be tackled. The winning goal came in the 28th minute when Benny Martin, moved inside to centre back this week, won a towering header in defence which went beyond Cobh’s high defensive line. Murphy raced in behind them and chipped the goalkeeper from nearly thirty yards with a sublime finish.

The rest of the game saw nine cards, but no further goals as the Blues despite plenty of chances. Waterford can thank goalkeeper Igor Bacela for a flying one-handed save from an almost point-blank header late in the game as they secured a second-place final position in Tier Two South ahead of the national quarter-finals. The impressive ex-Bohemians schoolboy netminder (main photo above by Aoife Lowry) is on standby for the Republic of Ireland squad for next month’s World Cup in Qatar alongside fellow Blues player Mo Oladiti. Credit also to Benny Martin and Julian Power who were both were excellent in defence with last-ditch tackles and clearances off-the-line. 

Waterford’s Under-20s earned a deserved 0-0 away to St Patrick’s Athletic on Saturday in what was a very good game despite the lack of goals. The Blues defended well with Jason Healy, Adam Queally and Seán Keane all instrumental in keeping the clean sheet. There was a welcome return for Aaron Cass after a nasty head injury and he impressed, as did the very young midfield trio of Romeo Lapite, Bobby Keohan and Oladiti, with 15-year-old Orion Cala superb up front.