Academy
- Monday April 11th, 2022 @ 14:20
Academy Weekend Report (April 8th/9th/10th)
It was another busy weekend in the Saints Academy with three of our four teams in action and a number of Academy graduates in the first team squad.
It began on Friday night against Dundalk at Richmond Park when Adam Murphy, celebrating his 17th birthday, became the youngest ever senior starter for the club in the modern era.
Having made his first team league debut off the bench against Sligo, Adam also came on in the 1-1 draw with Drogheda United last weekend, before starting in front of over 4,000 fans at Richmond Park against Dundalk.
Having started the game brightly, the ex Belvedere midfielder unfortunately picked up a hamstring injury mid-way through the first-half and had to be replaced.
Manager Tim Clancy said afterwards:
"Adam is an explosive kid and the quickest player we have at the club in all the testing. I was never blessed with pace so I don't know what that's like but he's very explosive and that's an issue with players who are quick.
The injury is certainly not from a lack of preparation or the physical side of it because he's an exceptional professional for someone who is in fifth year at school. If it's something he needs to be helped with, we'll certainly do that.
He's a very strong kid as well, looks after himself and does everything right. He was disappointed as it was his 17th birthday, he started the game and he did really well.
We'll see how it is as it's too early to say. But I feel for him as he's champing at the bit after two sub appearances and his first start, but he'll have many, many more games at senior level."
Murphy wasn't the only Academy man involved for St Pat's on Friday, fellow teenagers James Abankwah (18) and Darragh Burns (19) also started the game, which was live on RTE, while Kian Corbally, Ben McCormack, Sam Curtis and Kyle Robinson were among the substitutes.
Robinson netted twice for the U19s on Sunday with Sam Curtis and first-team player Tunde Owolabi also on target in their 4-0 win over Galway United at Richmond Park. This season, two overage first-team players can play for the U19s on any given weekend.
Also on Sunday, our U15s beat Dundalk 6-3 at Oriel Park in the EA SPORTS Underage National League to keep up their 100% start to the season.
Victor Lace and Mason Melia both scored twice each with Bez Agbontaen and Charlie Hamilton also hitting the back of the net.
On Saturday, our U14s continued their preparations for the start of their season later in the summer with a friendly against Shamrock Rovers at TU Dublin Blanchardstown.
While our U17s game against Longford Town was postponed due to international call-ups. Five St Patrick's Athletic players are in Paul Osam's Ireland U16 squad for a tournament in Serbia which begins tomorrow.
Best of luck to Sean Mackey, Anto Dodd, Rhys Bartley, Taylor Mooney, Luke Kehir and St Pat's Head of Academy Goalkeeping Sean Fogarty (who is also the Ireland U16 GK coach), keep an eye on our social media pages across the week for updates.
We also premiered a special 'Inside Saints Academy' feature on our Youtube channel during the week, you can watch it on our Youtube channel below.
Photo credit: Sportsfile
