At Sancta Maria Last Saturday morning in two fantastic encounters Ballyboden under 9 footballers (section 1) showed true grit on and off the pitch as they overcame their Cuala counterparts by a five point aggregate margin. 50 points to 45.

Afterwards many a house, shop and car was covered in true grit also, as the grit from the all weather pitch had stuck to the boys (and attendees) footwear. Your correspondents house, a neighbours house and the Grannys house were all covered in it before the culprits, after much denial, were identified.

It was especially irksome as like many homes around the country, the time the boys are out at matches is used to hoover the house. So a tip to you all is to take the shoes off before you walk in the door or you may end up hoovering the house for your troubles.

Having rained all night it was somehow dry at the throw in at 11am, It looked as if the rain might even hold off for the duration of the game. Alas the game ended in a downpour. The Ballyboden boys were split into two teams and the games began.

Your correspondent watched the game at the lower end of the pitch.

Ballyboden lined out with the excellent Kyle Heneghan in goal. A defence of the Battling James's Kinsella and Dunne aided

by the ever willing Cian McCarthy. In Midfield the wonderful trio of Daragh Gibson, Matthew Fitzpatrick and Michael Lovett whilst in attack the days ace marksman Mark Ryder, was aided by the Brilliant trio of Niall Duffy, Dara Ward and Manus Coughlan. Masterminded on the line by Mike Fitzpatrick.

As ever their was a fine attendance of parents,grandparents,siblings and other wellwishers. Amongst them a younger sister of a player who came eqipped with fold out chair and cheered the team on in great comfort from her perch on the halfway line.

The game started off fairly even with both defences on top. The eversteady James Dunne started as he continued by clearing some fine ball  from the back. The fine James Kinsella and cool Cian McCarthy both marked up and cleaned up well giving their opponents little chance.

The first score of the day was Ballybodens as the fleet footed Mark Ryder scored the first point with a fine kick after taking a fine pass from Manus Coughlan and deftly evading two Cuala defenders. Cuala quickly responded with a point before sharpshooter Daragh Gibson latching on to a ball from Dara Ward sent the ball over the bar for a second Boden point.

Cuala went down the other end and Kyle Heneghan had to pull off the first of a number of good saves over the half. In Midfield the excellent Michael Lovett, despite having already played a game earlier, was full of life and was unlucky with a wide. The wonderful Matthew Fitzpatrick showed both his skill and fearless throughout the game as he constantly got stuck in and made some telling tackles, breaks, shots and passes.

Then once again sharpshooter Mark Ryder showed his prowess in front of goal by scoring a fine point. Soon after James Dunne cleared the ball to Michael Lovett who passed to Matthew Fitzpartick whos ball in was won by Niall Duffy whos shot was cleared to the waiting arms of Daragh Gibson and Daragh put the ball over the bar to extend Bodens lead.

Cuala scored a point before sharpshooter Mark Ryder scored yet another fine point for Ballyboden. Just before half time Cuala scored another point and as the whistle blew it was 0-5 (15) to 0-3 (9) in Ballybodens favour.

What was impressive was that both teams were going for and getting points whereas earlier in the season they would have gone for goals. It shows how they have improved over the course of the year so far. Switches made at half time meant that the tenacious Manus Coughlan and Dara Ward had switched to dfence whilst the dyanmic duo of James Kinsella and Cian McCarthy went up front. The excellent Kyle Heneghan moved outfield to be replaced by Michael Lovett in goal.

Second half and Cuala sored first to cut the margin to 3. Ballyboden battled back with another fine score for Mark Ryder. A sustained spell of pressure saw James Kinsella , Kyle Heneghan, Dara Ward and Matthew Fitzpatrick all come close as shots were saved or just wide. Ballybodens pressure was rewarded though as freescoring Mark Ryder got yet another point, Then sharpshooter Daragh Gibson scored a lovely goal to extend Ballybodens lead.

At the other end the ever alert Sean Coughlan (another who had already played a game) came on and replaced Micheal Lovett in goal.Sean was called into action a number of times and as ever dealt very well with all that came his direction.

It was the wonderful Cian McCarthy who got Ballybodens next score after some pressure that involved Niall Duffy and Matthew Fitzpatrick. Sharpshhoting Cian then struck again as the caugt the kick out and put the ball back over thebar to register his second point of the day.

On fire at this stage, Mark Ryder then fired over another fine point to bring his tally for the day to an excellent six.

Late on Cuala responded with a goal and a point.

Your reporter asked the ref the score 31 16 in Ballybodens favour.

Ballyboden: Kyle Heneghan, James Kinsella, James Dunne, Cian McCarthy (0-2), Daragh Gibson (1-2), Matthew Fitzpatrick, Michael Lovett, Dara Ward, Mark Ryder (0-6), Niall Duffy, Manus Coughlan. Sub:Sean Coughlan.

Meanwhile in the other game a Ballyboden team including Conor Lowe, Ruairi MacMathuna, Enda Cashman, Luke McDwyer, Tim Sweeney, Ciaran McDonnell, Matthew Nolan, Jack Leach, Dioma Murphy-Roche,Eoin Ryan, Jack Daly and John McGinn (apologies if this was incorrect as I wrote down the team in haste in pencil and then wrote over it with the other games stats in pen!) were losing to Cuala and despite a brave performance lost 29 points to 19.

Overall though Ballyboden came out 50 point to 45 winners.

Well done to all the boys and specatators.