Cabinteely’s Zak O’Neill was preparing all week to face the Kerry League in the Under 17 league, but ended up with the added bonus of representing the club at Under 19 level also, when he made his debut coming off the bench in their 1-1 draw with UCD at Belfield on Saturday.
He replaced Ronan O’Kelly in the second half, along with fellow Under 17 player Clayton Walsh. The result was an excellent point against a very good UCD side.
On Sunday they faced a long journey to face the Kerry League, but unfortunately for them, ended up on the wrong side of a 1-0 score line. However, for O’Neill it was an excellent weekend.
We spoke to Zak after his weekend excursions and he said, “Yeah personally for me it’s been a great weekend on an individual level but such a shame the results couldn’t match.”
“I was training a little bit and played a couple of pre season friendlies with the U-19’s but it was a totally different experience making my league debut, especially against such a strong side like UCD.”
“It was a great experience for me playing in the stadium as well, and hopefully I’ll have more opportunities with the U-19’s in the coming weeks.”
“As for today’s result for the U-17’s, we were extremely disappointed and definitely deserved something from the game.”
“Maybe we just weren’t clinical enough and Kerry took the only chance they had so fair play to them. Both the U-17’s and U-19’s squads are a lot stronger this year so I think there’s still a lot more to come from both sides. Overall for me it was a very tiring, but enjoyable weekend of football.”
Photo Credit: Cabinteely FC