Swans exit after defeat by Maree on penalty kicks
Our U12s Swans bowed out of the SFAI Trophy on Saturday after a fantastic run, but they did not exit the competition without a fight.
The girls hosted Maree Oranmore in the quarter-final. The Galway side put our girls under pressure from the very start and to their credit played some great football. The Swans defence held firm for 30 minutes in the first half, but Oranmore broke the deadlock just before the interval to finish the first half with a 1-0 lead.
Our girls found it very hard to get out of their own half with the amount of pressure the Galway side produced, but the Swans proved very hard to break down. Ciara produced off a superb display in goals and was hands down player of the match. In the true fighting spirit of our Swans, they never gave up and in injury time our left footed wonder kid, Éirinn drove at the heart of the Oranmore defence and with her trusted left foot struck a sweet shot into the top corner of the net, to bring the game into extra-time.
The girls now faced into another 20 minutes of football after putting in a huge shift after an hour of normal time. This did not faze this group of girls and again put in another stellar performance to bring this tightly contested game to penalties.
It's never a nice way to decide the outcome of a game but as the saying goes, when it comes to penalties, it's a lottery. When asked to step up to take a penalty not one Swan shied away and that just captured the fighting spirit that this group of girls have. The penalty shootout did not disappoint either. The standard of penalty taking was outstanding, so much so that the shootout went to sudden death. Unfortunately someone had to lose. But massive credit has to go to Maree Oranmore as they came away with a deserved win and we wish them all the best in the semi-final.
For our Swans, they can hold their heads high. They never gave up and the club and all our supporters are all very proud of you all.
Team: Ciara, Olivia, Weronika, Sophie, Leah, Ava, Eva S, Éirinn (C), Eva B, Mia, Ellen, Ellie, Emily.