Disappointment for Slane U17s in Shield final

Lisnaskea attacked from the first whistle and on the second minute had Slane scampering at the back but Ryan Shilliday recovered with great pace to charge down the shot and deflected it for a corner. Maxwell showed a safe pair of hands, holding firmly onto the deep cross to the back post.

Slane were dangerous on the width with David Ogle using his electric pace up the left and Jonny Carlisle was working the right flank to great effect, whipping in some dangerous crosses into the Lisnaskea penalty area.

On the quarter hour David Blakely played the ball inside to Ervine Boyd who used his trickery and nut megged the opponent. He squared to Adam Gibson who played the through ball to Jamie Dickson and his rasping shot just whizzed the wrong side of the up right.

Philip Galloway was winning the aerial balls against the big centre forward as Lisnaskea turned the screw on Slane firing in long hopeful balls from their defence.

Andrew Boyce also had a pop at the target but the keeper held on well and Ogle hit over the top.

The first goal came on the 25th minute when a good ball split the Slane defence and the striker raced in berating the offside trap and rounded the advancing Maxwell to tuck the ball into the empty net from an acute angle.

On the half hour Blakely played a great ball to Ogle and he raced past his marker, firing in a cross to the edge of the box and Josh Porter drilled with power but his shot elevated over the bar.

With two minutes to the break Slane gave away a needless free kick on the edge of their box and the central defender hammered in a rasping powerful shot that curled around the wall and sailed into the top corner for a wonder goal.

Slane came out the second half and produced some good football early on with Dickson and Boyd both hitting on target but the keeper was equal to hold onto the ball.

Blakely and Porter were playing well at left and right back and Galloway and Shilliday were under immense pressure at central back and Lisnaskea were upping the tempo to find the killer goal.

Maxwell pulled off a great save from close range low to his left pushing the shot around the post.

The visitors did get their third with 15 minutes to go when they again beat the Slane offside trap and the winger nipped in hitting an unstoppable shot with the outside of the boot that curled wide of Maxwell and into the bottom corner of the net.

Ryan Bready and Ryan McCann entered the affray as Slane dug deep and never dropped the heads. With ten minutes to go Slane got a deserved goal when a deep cross from the left found Dickson lurking at the edge of the eighteen yard penalty area. He waited for the ball to drop out of the sky and caught it sweetly on the half volley and the ball sailed through the crowded penalty area and into the back of the net.

Overall a good performance by the Slane lads against stiff opponents on the day, best for Slane on the day was David Ogle on the left wing.

Team: W Maxwell, P Galloway, R Shilliday, A Gibson, D Blakely, J Carlisle, E Boyd, A Boyce, J Dickson, D Ogle, J Porter, R McCann, R Bready.