Omagh celebrate 12 goals of Christmas

OMAGH Futsal signed off for the Christmas break in style on Sunday by claiming a 12-2 NI Premiership victory over Belfast Iberians at Shankill Leisure Centre.

Ryan McMenemy was the star of the show, netting six times, while Jordan Newell (2), Zach Ferson (2), David Fulton and Benny Tereso were also on target as Omagh engineered a 10-1 half-time lead before seeing out the game in a comparatively uneventful second period.

The main difference between the sides on Sunday proved to be Omagh’s young legs. With two 19 year-olds, two 18-year-olds and one 17 year-old in their ranks, the Tyrone side had energy to burn against a more experienced Belfast side, who were unable to keep up. The result was the ideal conclusion to the first half of the season which has been a bit of a rollercoaster for the Omagh club who have had some impressive performances without necessarily reaping the rewards.

“This year there have been up and downs,” acknowledged club coach David Alonso. “We couldn’t play 100 per cent properly but yesterday [Sunday] the boys did quite well especially in the first half.

“We led 10-1 but not only that we had some other chances in front of the keeper that we didn’t put in.”

Having blitzed their hosts in the first half, the second period was never likely to reach such heights as Iberians attempted a damage limitation exercise.

“In the second half the Iberians didn’t really try to score, they sat back and I said to the guys at the break that it was really important for our keeper to fight in defence,” Alonso added.

“But it was also really, really important to respect your opposition, to not do anything silly and to not try to embarrass the opposition.”

Omagh will return to action on January 23rd.