Ashbourne player in action against Holland
Ashbourne Utd player Lee Rock featured for the Republic of Ireland u-15 side against Holland in a friendly international in Antalya, Turkey, this afternoon where Dutch substitute Tahith Chong scored the only goal in the second-half.
'The boys were obviously extremely disappointed at the result, but as far as I was concerned it was another excellent performance. We produced a very good first half in 21 degrees - we had our defensive structure very well set up. We gave the Dutch lots of problems in the middle third of the pitch, which was very pleasing,' commented manager Colin O'Brien.
'In the second-half Holland had a strong period, which you'd expect, but we defended resiliently. I felt we were very good overall in all aspects of our play.
'It was a very tight game really. We produced about one good chance and a few half-chances and it was basically the same for the Dutch really,' added the manager.
The next item on the agenda for O'Brien and his staff is the final national assessments in the middle of March before the squad comes together for an away double-header In Scotland in April.
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND - Paul Martin (Belvedere); Alec Byrne (Carrigaline United), Aaron O'Driscoll (Cherry Orchard), Lee Rock (Ashbourne Utd), Daniel McKenna (Belvedere), Jayson Molumby (Villa FC), Lukas Browning (St Kevin's Boys), Anthony Scully (West Ham), Shane Stokes (St Kevin's Boys), Aidan Keena (Mullingar Ath), Jamie Hamilton (Belvedere).
Subs: Michael Muphy (Raheny United) for Browning 52 mins, Colm O'Loghlen (Avenue United) for Hamilton and Eoin Porter (New Ross Celtic) for Keena 60m.
Conall Collier