Carrickmore Under-13s are crowned champions

Carrickmore    4-16

Eglish    2-7

CARRICKMORE collected the Grade One U-13 Championship title when they produced a superb display of attacking football to get the better of Eglish in the final at Donaghmore.

It was a contest that was laced with quality scores and top defending with the winners recovering from conceding a goal in the first attack to lead 1-11 to 1-3 at the break.

An early second half goal more or less ended the game as a contest and while Eglish deserve credit for playing to the final whistle they were always playing catch up.

Eglish couldn’t have asked for a better start to the game when midfielder Matthew Daly found the net after only thirty seconds. By the time though that they had got their first point in the eighth minute via a free from Brian Og McGuckin the winners had turned things around in dramatic fashion.

First of all scores from Sean Donnelly, Brayden McNally and Vincent Gormley got them on level terms before the latter scored an opportunist goal in the fifth minute. Points then followed from Lochlann Gillen and Conal Loughran to leave them well placed.

It was Carrickmore who were using the ball better and working hard for each other and an outstanding brace from centre half forward Gormley pushed them further in front. McGuckin knocked over another free as well as adding a point from play but efforts from McNally, Donnelly and Gormley left the scoreboard reading 1-11 to 1-3 at half-time.

Eglish needed a good start to the second half but straight away Carrickmore grabbed their second goal of the night with Finbar Donaghy finishing low to the bottom right hand corner of the net.

Eglish then enjoyed a good spell that yielded them points from McGuckin (2) and Matthew Daly but they were given little sniff of the goal thanks to a well marshalled Carrickmore defence.

With ten minutes left to play Donaghy hammered an unstoppable shot into the top left hand corner of the net as Carrickmore continued to dictate the pace of the game.

Daly then got his second goal of the game for Eglish but that was quickly cancelled out at the other end of
the field by a major from Joseph Hughes. Gormley and Donnelly added a brace of points each with Donaghy also on target with Eglish’s sole response coming from the boot of McGuckin as Carrickmore emerged worthy winners to take the silverware.

TEAMS & SCORERS

Carrickmore

Aidan Og Loughran, Patrick Junior Haughey, Niall Morris, Rian Martin, Padraig Loughran, Ruairi Daly, Caolan McGarrity, Sean Donnelly (0-3), Lochlann Gillen (0-1), Paidi McCallan, Vincent Gormley (1-6,2f), Finbar Donaghy (2-1), Brayden McNally (0-3), Conal Loughran (0-2), Joseph Hughes (1-0).

Sub: Conal Coney for Hughes

Eglish

Conan Daly, Tom Hegarty, Joe Mackin, Charlie McKenna, Eoghan Devlin, Cian Byrne, Ethan Gildernew, Matthew Daly (0-1), Matthew Daly (2-0), Senan Donnelly, Brian Og McGuckin (0-6,3f), Daithi Corrigan, Conan McGuckin, Ryan Gildernew, Peadar McGeough.
Subs: James McCormack for Devlin, Michael McElvaney for Conan McGuckin, Conan McGuckin for Donnelly, Joel Marrion for McGeough

Referee

Sean Darcy, Tattyreagh