We played Carrickmacross in the Ballybay rd grounds in Carrick on the 29/10/23. This was the first meeting of these two teams after a number of battles during last years campaign in which Carrick were the victors so this was billed as an epic grudge match. We started very brightly with a number of great performances particularly in the midfield but most notably from Darragh O Malley on the right side of mid field who had the bit between his teeth and caused Carrick defence a lot of headaches with a number of great runs and shots on the Carrick Keeper Liam Monaghan who was on great form between the posts. Despite playing a lot of good football and passing it well it took us well into the first half to break down a strong Carrick defence from an excellent run from the left side of midfield by a recently returned from injury Leo Rooney who gracefully slotted the ball under the Carrick keeper to put us up 1-0. Carrick were well rattled but like all great champions they didn't stay down for long and they regrouped and attacked us again with Rocky Balboa uppercut and got a free kick outside the box. Despite a well placed wall the Carrick striker hit the ball hard and it sailed into the top corner of the Monaghan Goal despite the best attempts of Ronan O Reilly in goals. It finished 1-1 at half time.

The second half saw a reinvigorated Carrick who attacked us in droves but despite a few attempts our defence lead by Oisin Thornton and backed up by Jamie Sheridan and Ronan O Reilly in goals dealt with a lot of the pressure. As the second half developed more gaps started to open up in the Carrick defence as they were struggling to deal with Ethan Connolly who was running at them like a Giselle and laid a ball onto Tiernan Keenan who didn't need to be asked twice and rounded the Carrick keeper to make it 2-1. This was closely followed by Bobby O Brien who came back after hitting the upright a few minutes earlier to extend the lead to 3-1 and this is how the game finished. I would like to thank the traveling parents for their tireless support and the Referee Joe Smyth and also give a mention to our team sponsor Maurice Grahams along with the Monte Carlo who recently sponsored food for our game against Aileach FC in the SFAI 2nd round.