A last minute goal from County Down’s Paul George gave Ireland U17’s a share of the points in their 2-2 European Elite stage qualifying opener against Denmark in Greece this afternoon.
John Morling’s Ireland team took the lead thanks to Arsenal’s Philip Roberts who slotted home after a period of Danish pressure. The Danes equalised just before half time and looked like they had secured the three points when Zohore scored with only two minutes of normal time left.
However with less than a minute remaining of added time, Celtic ‘bhoy’ Paul George equalised for ‘The boys In Green’ to keep us well in contention going into Friday’s difficult clash against hosts Greece, who defeated Latvia 2-0 in their opener today.
IRELAND – Joe Coll (Manchester United), Colm Horgan (Salthill Devon), Tommie Hoban (Watford), Steven Smith (Arsenal), Sean Kavanagh (Belvedere), Kealan Dillon (Derby County), Darragh Lenihan (Belvedere), Luke Gallagher (Cherry Orchard), Kenny McEvoy (Tottenham Hotspur), Philip Roberts (Arsenal), Sam Byrne (St. Josephs Boys).
Substitutes: Ian Lawlor (Manchester City), Paul George (Celtic), John Kavanagh (Ringmahon Rangers), Pierce Sweeney (Belvedere), Michael Hyland (Southend), Bradley Garmston (West Brom), James Murphy (Reading).
The Ireland Under-17 team started their UEFA Championship first phase qualifying campaign with a win yesterday after beating Malta at the Centenary Stadium, Ta'Quli.
Ireland are competing with mini-groups hosts Malta, Albania and Norway for the two qualifying places into the elite phase of the competition which are due to take place in the new year.
Yesterday's victory, the first match under the management of John Morling, was never in doubt once James Murphy fired Ireland ahead on twelve minutes.
Mikey Drennan had headed over and Jamie Smith had his header saved during a two minute period prior to the breakthrough goal but Reading striker Murphy made no mistake after Colm Horgan and Philip Roberts had combined to release the forward.
Ireland continued to press and Roberts was inches from netting a great individual goal after he got past three defenders and struck the post with a shot.
Murphy then saw his effort cleared off the line as Ireland finished the first half the stronger.
The pattern of the game remained the same following the restart with the Irish peppering Malta's goal. Darragh Lenihan was denied by the goalkeeper on 51 minutes but there was nothing the custodian could do about Drennan's shot on 66 minutes which made it 2-0.
The goal arrived from a free-kick awarded for a lunge by Samir Arab on Ireland winger Kenny McEvoy which earned the Maltese defender his second booking of the contest.
Despite their numerical disadvantage, Malta then enjoyed their best period of the game and Muscat's expertly taken free-kick swept past Joe Coll on 72 minutes to reduce the arrears.
Ireland never looked like conceding again, though, and after Kealan Dillon's shot rebounded off the post, the same player made the game safe eleven minutes from time with a strong strike following some superb build-up play.UEFA Under-17 first phase qualifying result
Malta 1-3 Ireland
Muscat 72 James Murphy 12
Mikey Drennan 66
Kealan Dillon 79
Ireland u16 international Bradley Garmston certainly has the pedigree to be lightening fast on the left wing for Ireland and West Brom in the future. The Chorley born teenager has been rated as the second fastest 100 & 200m runner in the UK for his age and despite a promising sprinting career has decided to stick with football.
He recently signed a two year scholarship with West Brom having spent the previous two years with their youth teams and was a member of Albion's successful under-15s team who won the National Nike Cup beating Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea, Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Arsenal and eventually Everton in the final
Sprinting certainly runs in the family for young Garmston as his mother is former Commonwealth gold medal winner Sonia Lannaman who also competed at 100m & 200m during her highly successful sprinting career.
Sixteen year old Garmston has been a regular in John Morling’s Ireland u15 & u16 teams over the last year and moved up from u15 to u16 level last summer. He recently travelled with Ireland u16’s to take part in the Albufeira 4 Nations Under-16 tournament in Portugal, competing against teams from Italy, Portugal & the Netherlands.
