TWO first-half goals gave Southend United victory over a battling Tramore challenge in the Property Partners U-16A league at Graun Park on Thursday night last in a game that also saw the return to action of midfielder Patrick Barrett.

Barrett, who left Water-ford for Aberdeen at the end of last season, was released from the Scottish club due to personal reasons and after receiving his release and International clearance in time for this fixture, he lined up in the centre of the park with Gavin O’Brien.

After winning a league and cup double last season, the visitors to the seaside venue put in a controlled performance as they were rarely threatened by a home side that were just outclassed on the night by an excellent Southend team performance.

From the opening whistle, they were on the attack and within two minutes, Sean O’Loughlin set up Robbie Burke, however when the ball broke off a Tramore defender back into the path of the attacker, keeper Killian Burns saved with his legs.

Burke was causing problems to the Tramore defence from the start and when he raced onto a pass over the top from Adam Sutton on seven minutes, he flashed a right-footed strike from the edge of the penalty area inches wide of the right-hand post.

Keeper Burns came to his sides rescue with a fantastic double save on 13 minutes when firstly he kept out a brilliant Sean O’Loughlin header from a Glen Hawe right-wing delivery and from the resulting Hawe corner, Patrick Barrett was somehow denied by a superb save from the netminder.

The first real shot on goal that Tramore had arrived on 27 minutes when Evan Connolly stepped over a free kick after he was fouled but his effort never troubled Southend netminder Dale Sheridan as the ball went wide of the target.

Southend did go in front on 31 minutes when Glen Hawe whipped in a fantastic right-wing corner kick for Barrett, who outjumped the Tramore defence and although keeper Killian Burns made a decent stop, Robbie Burke was on hand to fire home against his former club.

It got even better for the visitors less than five minutes later when they doubled their lead with a stunning goal and it came after a piece of tactical genius from manager Brian Thompson after he decided to switch Glen Hawe and Craig Keane.

When Hawe took a pass from Patrick Barrett, he fed Keane out on the right touchline and after getting past the challenge of Tramore defender Sean O’Farrell, he put the ball on a plate for the inrushing Gavin O’Brien, who in return volleyed an unstoppable effort past the helpless Burns for a quite brilliant goal.

This goal left the home side with a proverbial mountain to climb and they never really looked like getting a foothold back into the game and Southend could have made it three early in the second half but Killian Burns made a fantastic save to deny Craig Keane.

Burns came to his sides rescue with another excellent save on 49 minutes when he got down low to his right to brilliantly turn a Patrick Barrett shot out for a fruitless corner kick and the visitors continued to miss the chances as Sean O’Loughlin fired over the crossbar on 52 minutes after good work from Glen Hawe.

Eoin Kiely and Evan Connolly were restricted to long range efforts, while Southend’s Sean O’Loughlin fired over from a decent position seven minutes from time but while the visitors had more chances, they had to be happy with just their two goals.

A word on the refereeing performance of Johnville’s Jimmy Whyte as the official did a superb job on this game and let it flow throughout and he was aided by two teams that were just interested in just playing football. Pity other teams couldn’t take a leaf out of the book of both teams because if they did, we could get rid of yellow and red cards and it would make life a lot easier for referees.

MATCH FACTS

TRAMORE: Killian Burns, Conor Burns, Sean O’Farrell, Conor Kennedy, Eamon Power, Barry Arnold, Eoin Nolan, Conor McGough, Evan Connolly, Shane McNulty, Eoin Kiely, Lochlin Carney, Ronan Walsh, John Harris, Brendan O’Sullivan and Sean Cheasty

SOUTHEND UNITED: Dale Sheridan, Adam Sutton, Jason O’Neill, Kieran Power, Anthony Fitzpatrick, Patrick Barrett, Glen Hawe, Gavin O’Brien, Robbie Burke, Sean O’Loughlin, Craig Keane, Dean Kennedy, Luke Brennan, Walter Croke, Graham Coady, Robert Healy

REFEREE: Jimmy Whyte (Johnville) 

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