Kilfynn Santos 2003

 Since last year's article in the chronicle the club had many highs and a few lows in the course of the year. The second half of last season we struggled to quite a lot in the league and barely avoided regulation down to Div 2 of the league. We could not get good results despite playing well in a lot of games. It was in the cup competitions that we showed our true worth. In the reserve cup competition we beat Mainebank F.C. in the first round away from home. This in itself was a great result as they were run­ning away with the Div 1 league at the time and w:ere the beaten finalists in this compe­tition in the previous two years. In the next round we drew Killarney Athletic away from home again and emerged victorious on a score line of 4-2. We were now into the - finals. This time we drew Mastergeeha who were a premiership side and were playing at home. Circumstances forced us to field an under strength side on the day and great credit is due to the play­ers who battles and fought all the way before going down 1-0 to a lucky goal in the last 10 minutes. We were disappointed at the result but proud to have held our own against a premiership side.

This was a great run in that competition but our true highlight of the year came in the Greyhound Bar Cup. In the draw we were pitted against top premiership side and cup specialists Rattoo Rovers who had won this cup only a few years previously. The game was played in Ballyduff and we tore into them from the start. The score was level at halftime at 1-1 and we went 2-1 up midway through the second half with Andrew Keane scoring a brilliant solo goal. We should have held on but Rattoo are not cup specialists for nothing and scored a late equaliser to force the game to a replay. The replay was on in the Meadow Grounds the following Sunday and everybody said we had lost our chance to beat them on the firstday.
Kilflynn Santos started where they left off the previ­ous Sunday and forced 2 fine saves from the Rattoo keeper but the game was turned on it's head after 15 minutes with Kilflynn reduced to 10 men by a strange refereeing decision. Rattoo with the extra man threw everything at us but the players defended as if their lives depended on it. After 120 minutes of football the sides were dead­locked at 0-0 thus resulting in a penalty shot-out. The players held their nerve in the shoot-out and scored 4 out of 5 shots while Rattoo only scored 2 of theirs. This win sent shockwaves through Kerry soccer and established Kilflynn Santos as a force to be reckoned with.

The current season is not going too well for us and once again we are struggling in the league. This is mainly down to the lost of a few key players from last year's squad but fear not Kilflynn Santos will match any team in the league when they are on their day.

On a final note I would like to take this chance to thank Mike Barry for the use of his excellent field, our sponsors Danny McElligott, Mike Parker and T.J. O'Sullivan plus all the local supporters and players for their continuing belief in the club.

 

Yours in Sport

 

Paddy Weir (Chairman)