By 
TYRONE UNDER-16 GRADE 3 CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL
Strabane 4-6 Castlederg 3-6
By Aodhán Harkin
BALLINAMULLAN was the venue on Saturday past for the North Tyrone derby clash featuring Strabane and Castlederg as their Juvenile footballers battled it out for the right to lift the Tyrone Grade 3 Championship title in what was a strange choice of venue. However, the players on the pitch didn’t worry about such and just set about on finishing their seasons on a high.
With both sets of players knowing each other so well it was always going to be keenly contested affair and that’s exactly how it panned out.
Sigersons opened with a point from play via Liam Harper and six minutes in Castlederg’s Kian McMenamin scored a fortunate goal past the helpless Jamie Harrigan.
Both sides then traded scores with the impressive Jamie Stewart on target for Sigersons with Caidan Harold replying for the Derg.
Strabane aided with the strong breeze then hit a purple patch during which they scored 2-2 without reply in a blistering five-minute spell.
Haydn Williamson scored a fine point from play and almost immediately afterwards latched onto a fantastic pass from Jamie Stewart to rattle the Derg net. Within three minutes the Derg net rattled again this time a significant effort from the industrious Callum McGuigan who also tagged on a point from play.
Castlederg against the run of play and the breeze responded with a fine goal from the boot of James McCrabbe, but Strabane hit their third goal just a minute later with Sean Rouse on target and before the interval Jamie Stewart fired over a point from play to leave Sigersons seven ahead at the break and all to play for in the second half.
Following the restart, Strabane increased their lead with a fine point from play via centre-half back Luke McCay with Castlederg responding in similar fashion with a good score through Ashton Hoynes.
With six minutes of the second half elapsed Sean Rouse scored his second goal for Sigersons with a fisted effort and ironically this was to be the last score that Strabane recorded in the game.
Castlederg took command of the game for almost the entire second half and but for stern defending from Sigersons particularly Ross Dudgeon, Thomas Logue, Harry Thompson, and Adrian Plata that thwarted them on several occasions, the Derg could have won easily. Points from Ben Carlin, Oisin Harvey, Kaidan Arnold and James McCrabbe plus a fine goal from Kaidan Harold brought the Derg to within a goal of Strabane and they threatened to go on and win the title.
With time almost up, it looked as though we were heading for extra time when Castlederg were awarded a last-minute penalty. Up stepped the diligent Diego Lara, but he blasted his effort wide much to the astonishment of the Strabane players and supporters. The referee played an addition few minutes during which Strabane defended like their lives depended upon it and there was huge relief when Sean Devenney eventually blew the whistle for full time.
An amazing stat from this game was the fact that all the scores came from open play, something that doesn’t happen too often!
Scorers
Strabane: Sean Rouse 2-0,Haydn Williamson 1-1, Callum McGranaghan 1-1, Jamie Stewart 0-2, Luke McCay 0-1, and Liam Harper 0-1
Castlederg: Caidan Harold 1-2, James McCrabbe 1-1, Kian McMenamin 1-0, Oisin Harvey 0-1, Ashton Hoynes 0-1, and Ben Carlin 0-1
Teams
Strabane: Jamie Harrigan, Cathal Tinney, Thomas Logue, Ross Dudgeon, Adrian Plata, Luke McCay, Harry Thompson, Liam Harper and Dylan Walters, Jamie McLaughlin, Charlie McElroy, Jamie Stewart, Sean Rouse, Haydn Williamson, Callum McGranaghan. Subs used: Daniel Sweeney for Liam Harper, Liam Harper for Jamie McLaughlin, Dylan Hassan for Sean Rouse, James Kerlin for Luke McCay, Jamie McLaughlin for Charlie McElroy
Castlederg: Eunan Friel, John Gallagher, Aodhán Gallagher, Cormac Meehan, James McCrabbe, Oisin Harvey, Dylan McCrory, Diego Lara, and Ben Carlin, Lorcan McHugh, Coran Donaghy, Nathan Glackin, Kian McMenamin, Caidan Harold, Ashton Hoynes. Subs used: Brogan Devlin for Cormac Meehan, Cahir Devine for Nathan Glackin, Cadán Keenan for Kian McMenamin
Referee: Sean Devenney (Drumquin)
