Salthill Devon U11s progressed to the last 32 of the SFAI Menton-Seery Cup after a well deserved victory away to Roscommon Town FC. Salthill travelled to their Connacht neighbours minus Dominic Gorton, Ross O’Connor and Kevin Cahalan, Ben Slater and Andrie who could not participate for various reasons and were grateful to Salem Bombo, Marcus Ohlstrom and Brian Colleran for teaming up with the squad for the day.

The game started in explosive fashion when Roscommon raced into an early lead after an excellently delivered in swinging corner from the left caused panic in the Devon defence and after a few failed attempted clearances, the ball found its way to an attacking player who swept the ball beyond James Hill in goal. Salthill responded well, however, and were level within minutes. After some of his teammates squandered a few good chances in promising positions, Robert Finnerty was played in on goal and found himself one on one with the home ‘keeper. He was coolness personified as he slid the ball past the advancing ‘keeper with a deft left footed strike into the bottom right hand corner. Buoyed on by the goal, Devon continued to create chances but the outstanding goalkeeper dealt admirably with the onslaught until Ronan Halloran and Finnerty combined excellently on the left when the latter dribbled into the box and unleashed a superb right footed volley to the roof of the net past the stunned goalkeeper. The visitors lead 2-1 at half time.

On the resumption, Salthill were mindful of their poor start to the first half and the back four of Shane Kelly, David Carter, Adam Fitzgerald and Dessie Conneely were determined not to let the home team gain any initiative this time around. They were competitive while defending and were instrumental in instigating attacks when in position of the ball. An excellently delivered corner from Halloran lead to the third goal when the ball was only partially cleared to Bronson Kelly and he struck a sweet half volley into the corner of the net to stretch the lead. This goal gave Devon some breathing space and with the home team tiring the visitors continued to dominate. They created many openings but there was only one more goal to come. It came when Finnerty completed the perfect hat-trick with a powerful header from the edge of the penalty area into the top corner of the net following a splendid delivery from Shane Kelly.

Salthill produced an excellent all round team performance and David Patten, Adam Murphy, Paddy Biadane, subs Paddy Donoghue, Bombo, Ohlstrom and Colleran commendably assisted those already mentioned. However, special mention must go to hat-trick hero Finnerty who piped Conneely and Halloran for the man-of-the-match award due to his goal scoring heroics.

The management team are, once again, grateful to the parents and supporters who travelled to the game and also to their hospitable hosts, Roscommon Town, who provided tea, cakes and sandwiches for the travelling numbers. Salthill look forward to the next round at home to Newbridge Town from Kildare.