Salthill Devon U-14’s advanced to the 4th round of the Irish Cup with a comfortable 5-0 victory over Colga on Saturday 19th December with goals from Dillon Murphy (2), Joe Gaughan, Eoghan Stenson and Diarmuid Fadden. Due to severe weather conditions, kick off was moved from 11am on the Saturday to 2.15pm and thanks to some Trojan work by ground man Vinnie Byrne, it appeared as if the only place in Ireland free of frost was Drom.

Dillon Murphy, captain for the day, following his impressive hat trick in the previous outing, elected to play with the winter sun at their backs which proved to be instrumental in the opening few minutes of the game.

Devon started very brightly with Alex Byrne and Joe Gaughan bossing the midfield and Ben Murphy and Shane Connaughton causing damage down the flanks. Eoghan Stenson and Dillon Murphy in attack have created a burgeoning relationship and all bodes well for the second half of the season.

In defence, Shane Garvey and Garbhann Malone are proving themselves to be a strong partnership at this level, leaving Chris Healy in goal to deal with limited shots from distance. Marauding full backs, Aaron Kane and the sweet left duke of Diarmuid Fadden give alternative attacking options when on the ball.

Devon had the game wrapped up in the first half, Dillon Murphy opened the scoring followed closely by a rare Diarmuid Fadden effort with the hint of an o.g., further goals by Dillon Murphy and Eoghan Stenson made it 4-0 and the best goal of the game wrapped up the best move following a neat array of passes which involved 8 different players and Alex Byrne set up Joe Gaughan to strike the ball sweetly from all of 35 yards to hit the top corner of the net.

At the interval, the Devon management structure called for more of the same, Conor Shaughnessy and Niall Murray replaced Alex Byrne and Joe Gaughan in the centre of the park. Further changes saw the introduction of Aaron Murtagh, Colin Hanbury and Eric Ohlstrom. Devon flattered to deceive in the second half and really should have added to the scoreline but missed some gilt edged opportunities.

Some hefty challenges were let go by the referee but thankfully there were no serious injuries on either side. Devon are now away to A.C. Celtic of Westmeath in the next round.