Bright start for new EPA Larkview team

By Stephen Leonard

THE new Elite Performance Academy (EPA) team in Larkview Boys FC played its first competitive match on Sunday, beating Allen-wood Celtic 4-0 in Whelan Park.

Set up by Alan Doyle and Robbie Fay last October with the focus on ‘development over winning’, this EPA Under 15 side entered the new Elite League set up by the NDSL and Kildare League.

Explaining how training for the new team is structured Doyle told The Echo “We are offering a minimum of 8-10 hours contact time with the ball and also sessions on S+C, nutrition, sports psychol-ogy, video analysis and home work.

“All players have been assessed by our top S+C coach Michael Noonan.

“He has put the players through a full body movement screen and some physicals test keeping all records and all players are then put on their own individual S+C program and are then re assessed every four weeks.

“Each game is recorded and our match analyst goes through the game and can segment individual sections for each player and also for the complete team” he explained.

Coached by Robbie Fay (UEFA B) and Brian O’Sullivan (UEFA A), EPA Larkview comprises of 17 players taken from around the province with a number hailing from Drimnagh, Kimmage, Terenure and Lucan.

They enjoyed a positive start to the season racing 4-0 in front by the halftime break in their Elite League curtain raiser against Allenwood.

Sean McManus propelled them out of the blocks when he smashed the ball into the roof of the net before Cormac Whelehan combined superbly with holding midfielder Lewis McKenna to carve out some space for a shot from outside the box that doubled their advantage.

Whelehan was on target again a half hour in following fine work by Ciaran Hayes, Jack McAvine and McManus in the build-up.

And the scoring was completed when Adam Mahon fed the ball into the path of McAvinue who made no mistake with the opening.

New players for the EPA team are always welcome and anyone interested can make contact through the Elite Performance Academy Facebook.