Under 16s are Division 2 All County Champions!

Antrim U-16 League Final

Friday 4^th October at Aghagallon

St. Joseph’s G.A.C. Glenavy 1.13 v 1.07 Gaeil an tSéibhe Dhuibh Belfast

St. Joseph’s got off to a flyer with four unanswered points on the scoreboard in the the game was played under lights at St. Mary’s excellent pitch on a beautiful evening with little or no wind to annoy the players. When these sides met in the semi-final of the U-16 championship, Glenavy came out with a four point victory for a hard fought victory. Once again a close encounter was expected but the Chapel Hill side was victorious with a six point victory.

Glenavy made a great start with four unanswered points in six minutes. Their fullforward line of Darragh Armstrong, Caolan McClenaghan and Ronan Hill drawing their markers out of position left room for Michael Morgan, Ronan Hill, Rory Nelson and Matthew Lawlor to use the open space to score. The Belfast side pulled a point back with a pointed free. Goalkeeper Lorcan Murphy’s kickouts were finding Glenavy’s midfields Eoin Dixon and Finn Malley who were excellent and getting good ball into their forwards.  Once again the orange lads scored with Shay O’Neill and Eoin Dixon chipping two apiece over the black spot, to put seven between the sides. The black mountain side came right back into the game with two pointed frees and one from play to close the gap to four. The hill’s halfback line of Darragh Doherty, Matthew Lawlor and Fiontan O’Boyle showed their ability and quelled the recovery. Michael Morgan stretched the lead to five just on the stroke of halftime to leave the score Glenavy 0.10 v 0.04 Gael’s.

Darragh Armstrong had a point to get the secondhalf going. Back came the city side with a point and a very well taken goal to close the gap to two points. Glenavy found themselves under severe pressure and could have been in trouble only for two excellent saves from Lorcan Murphy and to quell the city forwards the fullback line of Michael Fox, Timmy Honeyford and Daniel Hamill had to be in magnificent form. Ronan Hill broke through to get a very important point to steady his side. Michael Morgan showed all his class when he finished a well worked move to find the net. St.Joseph’s half-forward line of Michael Morgan, Rory Nelson and the hard running Shay O’Neill were causing their opposite numbers all sorts of trouble. Fiontan O’Boyle got through to take an excellent point. Darragh Armstrong put eight between the sides when he split the posts with time almost up. To their credit back came the mountain side to score the last two points to leave the score St.Joseph’s 1.13 v 1.07   Gaeil an tSéibhe Dhuibh as Referee Gerard Dougan Creggan Kickhams blew the fulltime whistle. .

Over the sixty minutes St.Joseph’s deserved their win but credit their opponents who never gave up and indeed could have been closer only for some wayward shooting. A word of thanks to the host club for making available a cup to present to the winners as there none available from the County Board .

County vive treasurer Tyrone Eastwood presented the cup to the Glenavy Captain Darragh Doherty.

Glenavy Panel:: Lorcan Murphy;  Michael Fox;  Timmy Honeyford; Daniel Hamill);  Darragh Doherty;  Mathew  Lawlor, F O’Boyle; Eoin Dixon;  Finn Malley,  Michael Morgan; Rory Nelson; Shay O’Neill,  Darragh Armstrong; Caolan  McClenaghan ; Ronan Hill; Eugene Cleneghan, Conor Loney, Joseph Maguire; Lewis Collins; Emmett McCloy; Matthew McDermott; Conal Dornan; Cian Shannon