Six of the best from Galbally Under-14s

Galbally 6-11 Ardboe 1-17

GALBALLY secured the Grade One Under-14 double in style at Father Devlin Park in Donaghmore on Saturday afternoon when they defeated a gallant Ardboe side in an absorbing Championship decider.

These two sides had also met in the league final when an injury time goal won it for the Pearses but this time around they set their stall out from the start. After trailing by three points they fired in four goals in the opening quarter to take control of the contest.

To their credit Ardboe came out for the second half with all guns blazing and they narrowed the gap to just two. They were the side who had all the momentum at this stage but Galbally didn’t panic as they lifted their game again to run out deserving winners on the day.

The superb Ciaran McKeown opened the scoring for the Rossas in the first attack but at the other end of the field Galbally also had an attacker on tp of his game with Finbar Quinn levelling matters. Ardboe though settled well and points from Odhran Coleman and McKeown (2) had them 0-4 to 0-1 in front by the 9^th minute. It was at this stage that Galbally hit a real purple patch with Quinn equalising with a superb finish to the roof of the net in the 10^th minute and that was followed sixty seconds later by a James Hurson goal.

Galbally now had their tails up and Quinn had a hattrick scored inside the opening quarter after profiting from fine passes from Dara McVeigh and Jaiden Dorman. The impressive Dorman tagged on a point as did Hurson to leave Ardboe in trouble trailing 4-5 to 0-4. They rallied though to score the last five points of the half through McKeown (3), Coleman and midfielder Jack Muldoon to give themselves some hope for the second half.

It was very much game on in the first attack of the second half when a long ball from Muldoon picked out McKeown ad he finished in style for an Ardboe goal. A Coleman point was followed by a McKeown brace which meant the Rossas had now scored 1-8 without reply either side of the break. Questions were being asked of Galbally but hey came up with all the answers with Dorman in particular coming to the fore. He hit a brace of points either side of one from Quinn as Galbally reasserted themselves.

Wing half back Conan Doris weighed in with a splendid point from out on the wing but in the 45^th minute Dorman cut in along the endline before fisting across for substitute Ciaran McCloskey to palm to the net. Quinn and Dorman (2) tagged on points either side of frees from McKeown and Coleman.

To their credit Ardboe refused to throw in the towel as they battled on with Coleman splitting the posts from play to leave half a dozen between the sides. Time though was against the Loughshore lads and it was Galbally who closed out the game in style when a flowing move in injury time saw Marcus McLaughlin find McCloskey who slotted home his second and his side’s sixth goal to clinch the silverware.

Match stats

The scorers….

Galbally

Finbar Quinn 3-3, Ciaran McCloskey 2-0, Jaiden Dorman 0-5, James Hurson 1-2 (1F), Dara McVeigh 0-1

Ardboe

Ciaran McKeown 1-9 (5F), Odhran Coleman 0-6 (3F), Conan Doris 0-1, Jack Muldoon 0-1

The Teams

Galbally

Paudi Hetherington, Connor Hamill, Lorcan O’Neill, Stephen McVeigh, Brian Thomas Quinn, Marcus McLaughlin, Daniel McCrory, Neil McElroy, Ronan Ferguson, Joseph Quinn, Dara McVeigh, Jaiden Dorman, James Hurson, Shea Cassidy, Finbar Quinn. Subs: Ciaran McCloskey for Hurson, Patrick Thomas Kelly for Brian Thomas Quinn, Fintan McVeigh for Joseph Quinn, Caelan Vincent for Cassidy, Ciaran McDonnell for Dara McVeigh

Ardboe

Lorcan Coleman, Eoin McKeown, Senan Devlin, Caden Devlin, Matthew Mallon, Conan Doris, Jack Muldoon, Ollie Mallon, Jack McGuigan, Odhran Coleman, Sean O’Neill, Conn McKeown, Ciaran McKeown, Caiden Hancock. Subs: Dean Muldoon for Caden Devlin, Conan Coyle for Sean O’Neill, Conall O’Neill for Hancock, Harry Quinn for Matthew Mallon

Referee

Andrew McKenna, Eskra