Congratulations to the St. Patrick’s Under 16 Footballers who beat Bellaghy on Saturday past to reach the league playoff final. A spectacular late goal from Daryl Mullan, a winning point from Conor O’Reilly and some intense defending from Liam Miller assured victory.
The young lads from Drum and Drumsurn travelled to Swatragh for an 11:30am throw in, having not played football together for almost eight weeks. The supporters who attended witnessed a gutsy never say die performance from a very talented team.
Playing with the wind in the first half St. Patrick’s got off to an amazing start, scoring three points for no reply. Bellaghy then took control of the game for a ten minute period when they laid siege to the St.Patrick’s goals. They scored three points to draw level and could have gone three points into the lead had a fierce short range shot not cannoned off the crossbar. Throughout the rest of the half both teams exchanged point for point, going in at half time 0-6 apiece.
Straight from the restart St. Patrick’s took the lead, however Bellaghy once again composed themselves and kicked five unanswered points to establish a four point lead 0-11 to 0-7.
Seamus Mullan and Gary (the Dog) Moore made a number of tactical changes that worked in their favour.
Daryl Mullan moved out of defence into midfield, Daniel Mullan moved to full back and Nial Devlin replaced Caolan Mullan in nets. St. Patrick’s started to win the midfield battle and within a few minutes had reduced the gap from four to two points.
With six minutes left on the clock Michael McGonigle took a quick free kick to Cathair Friel, who set off on a darting run. Bearing down on goal he opted to pass the ball to Daryl Mullan who in turn unleashed a thunderous shot to the back of the net, to re-establish the lead. Bellaghy equalised almost immediately to ensure a tense finish to what was a very enjoyable game.
With two minutes to play Conor O’Reilly kicked what was to become the winning point.
Bellaghy had one final attack but some absolutely fantastic defending by the St. Patrick’s defenders forced the Bellaghy forward to kick for a point in haste. Up popped Liam Miller to block the ball down and on that note EP Cassidy blew the final whistle.
St. Patrick’s will play Dungiven or Claudy in the final, date and venue are yet to be decided.
These young footballers need everyone’s support in the final, so all members of St. Matthew’s Drumsurn and St. Colm’s Drum ‘GET OUT AND SUPPORT THEM’
Good luck in the final St. Patrick’s
PS: Sorry about the short report. I lost the match notes in all the excitement.
St. Patrick'sCaolan Mullan; Eoghan McCloskey, Daryl Mullan, Paul McVeigh; Eion Ferris, Liam Miller, Daniel Mullan; Cathair Friel, Michael McGonigle; Niall Farren, Conor O’Reilly, Niall (Dobby) Devlin; Ciaran Mullan, Alex Moore, Michéal Robinson
SubsMichael O’Kane for Caolan Mullan (25 min)