ADSL manager Hewitt proud of his players after Kennedy Cup exploits

 

By Kieran Galvin

The manager of the ADSL team which finished fifth in the Kennedy Cup last week was full of praise for the way his charges performed.

 

Tommy Hewitt’s side topped their group in the prestigious U-14 football tournament, and thereby reached the quarter-finals, where they were defeated by the Cork Schoolboy League 1-0.

 

However, the Athlone District SL team then went on to claim the Plate and finished in fifth place out of the 32 teams in the competition.

 

In the Plate final, the ADSL defeated the Donegal SL on penalties after the sides played out a 2-2 draw. In the Plate semi-final, the Athlone side also came out on top in a penalty shoot-out (against Limerick County).

 

Speaking after the 1-0 defeat to the Cork SL in the Cup quarter-finals, Hewitt said: “Being the fourth seeds coming into it, nobody gave us a chance, but the lads acquitted themselves very well. The preparation leading into it was excellent. What they’ve done for the last three or four years has stood to them.”

 

“I’m immensely proud of our lads. We have only about 75 lads to pick from; Cork have 2,000 lads to pick from in their league. It just goes to show that our lads put up a great fight. They can hold their heads up high.”

 

Skilful Cork SL attacker Eoin Davis was surely one of the players who attracted attention from the several scouts in attendance at the University of Limerick last week. However, ADSL centre-backs Niall Murray (Hodson Bay Celtic) and Daniel Heavin (Ballinahown) were outstanding in curbing his threat.

 

“Niall Murray was absolutely immense. He’s a big lad but he showed that he is quite mobile. Daniel Heavin has been immense, he’s our captain, and I just can’t say enough about the kid,” said Tommy, who was keen to praise all 20 members of the squad.

 

Hewitt candidly admitted that, while his side were heroic in their defending, they found it difficult to create chances against a strong Cork outfit. He felt greater physical strength in the Cork ranks was the key factor in that regard.

 

“The physical side of it did show in the end. Cork are a physical side and, for all our endeavours at the back, we didn’t really create much. We never really threatened them in the final third. We played some nice football but the physical side of the game did let us down. That’s something that the league could look at in the future – core strength and that kind of stuff,” said Tommy.

 

The ADSL defeated the Waterford League 2-1 in the opening game, before a 2-2 draw with North East Counties and a 2-1 win over the Inishowen League ensured passage to the quarter-finals.

 

“We had a talk with the lads before we came down and our goal was to get seven points. We knew if we did that, we’d top the group. We did our homework on Waterford, NEC (North East Counties) and Inishowen and we knew we were capable of beating them.

 

'We’ve some incredibly gifted players in our squad who will go on to have good League of Ireland careers and hopefully something beyond that,” said Hewitt, who was joined in the management team by Anthony Sherlock, Kevin Rohan and Kieran Gavin.

 

*For full coverage of the ADSL’s Kennedy Cup campaign, please see this week’s Westmeath Independent which is in shops now.