Tulla United U12 Boys made the trip to Limerick to face Shelbourne AFC 3 in the first round of the National Trophy on Saturday. The game started with Tulla on the front foot and dominating possession, with some nice combinations on the right wing between full back Mikey Begley and Steven Kelly on the right wing creating some half chances for Gareth McDonnell up front and Luke Hassett supporting from the number 10 role. Shelbourne defended well and began to creep into the game and after a period of play in the Tulla half broke the deadlock when a failed clearance fell to their striker who stuck it away in the bottom corner. Going behind was  a shock to the Tulla lads and they re-grouped and re-gained control of the game straight from tip- off. Some lovely inter-play down the left wing from Ben Collins McCarthy and Conan O’ Mullane led to Luke receiving the ball at the edge of the box and he slid a pass in front of Gareth who slotted the ball into the bottom right hand corner to draw the Teams level at half time. After a re-set at half time the Tulla Boys came out with a much calmer controlled attitude and began to play from the back in a much more composed way. Within a few minutes of the re-start some smart play from Lorcan Williams playing out from the back found Conor Sweeney in the middle who slid a pass in front of Henrique Garacin on the right, he beat the full back and finished the flowing move with a fine goal to put Tulla ahead. Straight from the tip off Patrick Prior won possession and found Luke in front of him, who went on a mazy run through the Shelbourne defence and scored from close range. Tulla were well in control at this stage and Shelbournes attacks were dealt with by Lorcan, Cian Leyden, Tiernan O’Neill and Conan at the back, with Ben Fahy in goals not really tested. The pattern continued with Tulla building some good attacks through Ben on the left, Henrique on the right and Luke and Patrick in the middle, with Shelbourne defending and trying to play on the counter being successfully policed by Conor at no. 6 and Cian and Lorcan at the back. Eolann Courtney, Jack Horan came on for Conan and Patrick and continued the good defensive work and transitioning to attack when the ball was won. After a sustained period of Tulla pressure Conor added a fourth goal for Tulla, and at this stage he was replaced by Micheal O’Connell with Finn O’Driscoll coming on up front for Gareth. The pattern of play continued with Tulla having the majority of possession, but with Shelbourne always slightly threatening on the counter. Ben Fahy in goals however dealt with all that came his way and was very smart with his distribution. A few more chances came Tullas way with Ben, Finn, Henrique and Luke coming close and Lorcan making some driving runs from midfield. Eventually Luke got his second of the day to make the score 5-1 to the boys from Clare. Overall a good result and after a shaky start a very good comeback and second half display. Thanks to Shelbourne and the referee for a very sporting game