BITS 'N' PIECES

CHAMPIONES

What celebrations and outpouring of emotions at the final whistle in Turner Cross as Riverstown Under 16 Girls toppled the hot favourites Douglas Hall to capture the Noel O'Mahony Cup for the first time in their short history. This comes four years after they won the Under 12 League and Cup. A delighted Avril Fahy accepted the cup from Cork Schoolgirls League chairman Tom O'Connell and she paid tribute to the whole squad and their managers for the huge effort put in this year. Needless to say celebrations were continued back at the "Clubhouse" - The Riverstown Inn. Club chairman John Gilroy also paid glowing tribute to the girls for their dedication. This win shows that their is a great future ahead for this bunch of girls and it will certainly be a great spur for the girls academy which is going from strength to strength. It was also nice to hear Schoolgirls League chairman pay tribute to Mary Barry who carried the torch for Riverstown for a number of years and was one of the cornerstones that this success emanated from.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The Club's A.G.M. was held in the Riverstown Inn on Tuesday night last and there was a very good attendance. It was good to see so many parents present. The officers for the new season are as follows.
Chairman - John Gilroy (Outgoing)
Secretary - Tom O'Connor (Outgoing)
Treasurer - John O'Mahony
Vice Chairman - Derek Kelly-Lynch
Assistant Secretary/Registrar - Brian Crowley
Assistant Treasurer - Noel Hornibrook
P.R.O. - Eamon Breen (Outgoing)
Girls Liason Officer - Mary Crowley

CONGRATULATIONS

Congratulations to Michael O'Keeffe and Tiernan Hourhihan on their selection to the Cork Under 12 squad. This is the beginning of a great future for these lads and their other Riverstown team mates.

ALEXANDER'S GLANMIRE

This has proved to be the success of Christmas with sales going beyond expectations. Well done to author/editor John Gilroy and thanks to him for donating all proceeds to Riverstown F.C. There are still a limited number of copies available from Barry's Bookshop or Club Officers. I you have not acquired your copy, hurry before they are all gone

SCHILLACI'S GOAL HAS FINALLY BEEN AVENGED.........RIVERSTOWN F.C. HAVE DONE IT IN STYLE

Riverstown F.C. completed the rags to riches storyline when against all the odds, they took on Italy's cream academies and conquered them to take home the magnificient cup to Cork.
People could be forgiven for thinking that this trip would just serve as a good experience for the team and that they could not possibly hope to have any success on their travels.
Well nobody told the team or their coaches this as they proceeded to take the tournament by storm. What a baptism of fire as they opened the competition against the academy of the mighty Juventus. This was the game that they had trained long and hard for all summer long and they were not going to be denied. Juventus must still be wondered where these tigers came from as the Irish lads dominated from the start.
Final score

Riverstown F.C. 2 Juventus 1

with the Riverstown goals coming from skipper Luke Foran and an Eoghan Young penalty.
This scoreline was greeted with jubilation not only by the large group of travelling Riverstown fans but also by the whole community at home who were wating anxiously on the result.

Riverstown were up next against PGS Pro Belvedere, an academy of the Serie C side. Tired from their long journey to get their and their magnificient endeavour against Juventus, this was a hard fought game by two very evenly matched sides. Riverstown's defence and keeper were the stars of the show as they kept a clean sheet. Final score
Riverstown 0 PGS Pro Belvedere 0

The following day, and after a well earned nights rest, Riverstown completed their group games against Swiss side, Basle Juniors. This proved to be a stroll for Riverstown as goals from Paul Breen (2), James Flinter, Luke Foran, Conor Gilmartin, Barry O'Sullivan and Eamon O'Connor gave them an easy victoryl Final score
Riverstown 7 Basle Juniors 0

Riverstown had to then wait on the final game between Juventus and PGS Pro Belvedere to know their fate. But as PGS had to win by four goals, it was always looking likely that Riverstown would make it to the final. A 2 - 2 scoreline ensured this.
The other group included Inter Milan and local Serie C academy Pro Vercelli who topped their group to make it to the final.
This was a heart stopping encounter with Riverstown getting absolutely nothing from the home ref. Despite this they had a 1 - 0 lead at the break thanks to a Matthew Clifford goal. The second half saw some stout defending and good goalkeeping from Riverstown as they had to defy all the odds. An injury to keeper Brian McHugh added further pressure on them. Vercelli scored midway through the second half to bring about a grandstand finish. There were to be no more goals and due to the fact that a Vercelli player had to leave the field in an amulance following a bad injury, the organisers decided that it should go straight to penalties.
Vercelli 1 - Riverstown 1 (Eoghan Young), Vercelli (miss) 1 - Riverstown 2 (Matthew Clifford), Vercelli 2 - Riverstown 3 (Barry O'Sullivan), Vercelli 3 - Riverstown 4 (Luke Foran), Vercelli 4 - Riverstown 5 (Paul Breen)
and the Euro Sport Cup was on it's way to Glanmire.

The full Riverstown squad who all played their part in this historic win were.

Paul Breen, Matthew Clifford, Kevin Courtney, Shane Creech, James Flinter, Luke Foran, Conor Gilmartin, Shane Hickey, Gary Kelly-Lynch, Alan Kennedy, Craig Leahy, Evan McGuinness, Brian McHugh, Eamonn O’Connor, Shane O’Rahilly, Barry O’Sullivan, Kevin Quirke, Eoghan Young. Coaches, Len Hackett, Joe Murphy and Iannus O'Connell.

AWARDS NIGHT

The 2002/03 awards night were held recently in the Riverstown Inn. Special guest on the night was Pat Dolan, the colourful manager of Cork City as well as former City manager and present head F.A.I Coach in Cork, Mick Conroy. Mick has always been, and still is, a great friend to Riverstown F.C.

Special awards were giving to:

1. John O’Mahony: of the Riverstown Inn for his continuing support and sponsorship of the Club. As well as valuable sponsorship, John has always made his premises available to the Club for meetings, functions etc as well as providing food for many functions.

2. Brian O’Regan: who has been involved with the Youths and Under 17 sides for the past two years and has done great work with them. Brian also co-managed the Cork Youth Squad last year. This year he is taking a break from this side of football to concentrate on his referee inspection duties.

3. Luke Foran: who was a member of the Cork Kennedy Cup squad.

4. Sarah Courtney, Avril Fahy and Michelle Hourihan: who were part of the Cork U16 Girls squad.

The following were the team awards for the season:

UNDER 11: Player Of The Year: Alan Barry
Top Scorer: Michael O’Keeffe
Club Person Of The Year: Niall Horgan

UNDER 12: Player Of The Year: Conor Murphy
Top Scorer: Alan Barry, Dean Mooney, Martin Connolly
Club Person Of The Year: Sean Crowley

UNDER 13: Player Of The Year: Shane O’Rahilly
Top Scorer: Luke Foran
Club Person Of The Year: Evan McGuinness

UNDER 14: Player Of The Year: Drew Long
Top Scorer: Luke Murphy
Club Person Of The Year: Bryan Murphy

UNDER 15: Player Of The Year: Mark O’Regan
Top Scorer: Daniel Molden
Club Person Of The Year: Stephen Burkley

UNDER 16: Player Of The Year: Stephen Ahearne
Top Scorer: Greg O’Leary
Club Person Of The Year: Bryan Field

UNDER 16 GIRLS: Player Of The Year: Niamh Johnstone
Top Scorer: Andrea Houlihan
Club Person Of The Year: Lisa Cummins

UNDER 17: Player Of The Year: Sean Hennigan
Top Scorer: Robbie O’Halloran
Club Person Of The Year: Ivan Sexton

UNDER 18: Player Of The Year: Michael McCarthy
Top Scorer: Christopher Cummins
Club Person Of The Year: Ronan Hourihan

MATCH REPORTS, NEWS, PHOTOGRAPHS

To keep in the public eye and to get the best PR possible, we need constant reports and information from our members. Now that we have a spot on the A2Z.com Website, we are getting National exposure so please get those match reports in. They don't have to come from managers. The fan on the sideline usually gets a better idea of how a game went than a manager who is normally engrossed in his side. So please send in your views of the games. Also anybody out there with digital cameras, put them to use and start taking shots of teams and games.

MANAGERS FOR SEASON

ACADEMY (7 - 10)	Brian Crowley	4820528
"	Steve McNealy	4866690
"	Paul Mylod	4505309
"	Martin Kennedy	4821922
"	Noel Hornibrook	******
Under 11	Tom O'Connor	4822852
Under 12	Finbar O'Sullivan	4823450
"	Paul Barry	4911059
Under 13	Gerry O'Callaghan	4822274
"	John Savage	4866662
Under 14	Tom O'Conor	4822852
Under 15	Pat Murphy	4821468
"	Ken Buckley	4866862
Under 16	Liam Donovan	4821223
"	Liam Herlihy	4822415
Under 17/18	John McCarthy	4821623
"	Gerry Sharma	4866344
"	Jim Courtney	4889527
Under 14 / 16 / 18 Girls	Mary Crowley	4820528
"	Eamon Breen	4821260

MICHAEL MCCARTHY