St Teresa’s braced for Minor showdown

GRADE TWO MINOR CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL

By Niall Gartland

SOME of the most talented young footballers coming through the ranks in Tyrone have been nurtured since they were young primary school children by a band of committed volunteers in Loughmacrory, and on Sunday another talented crop from the club is bidding to get their hands on the Grade Two Minor Championship title.

Among their number are three members of this year’s All-Ireland Minor winning team – namely Ciaran McCrystal, Pearse McDonald and Odhran Curran – but it should be said that they’re a well-rounded side who stand two games away from completing a league and championship double.

The first stop on that quest is Sunday’s Grade Two Championship final against Drumragh. Managing the team is Mark McCullagh alongside Leo Meenan (a former teammate back in the day with Omagh CBS), Enda Ward and three current Loughmacrory senior players – Nathan Kelly, Cathaoir Gallagher and Colm Logue.

They’ve been very impressive en route to the final, but perhaps their flagship victory was a quarter-final win over a really strong Killyclogher team, whom they will face in their upcoming league final. Speaking ahead of Sunday, Mark McCullagh said: “We’d a tough opener with Beragh, they’d a great start but we got through it, then we put a lot of work into that game against Killyclogher.

“It was a tight contest and they suffered a big blow when they lost Thomas Meenan with about 15 minute to go, he had to go off with a bad arm injury. He’s a great lad and he’s Leo’s nephew.”

Loughmacrory were resounding victors against Kildress in the semi-final and now stand on the cusp of championship honours. These things don’t happen by chance and McCullagh, a teacher in the local primary school, St Teresa’s, charts their progress this season.

“It’s no secret, the amount of work that goes in at underage here, and we were very proud of the lads who played for Tyrone minors this year. We travelled far and wide to watch them.

“A few other minors, Enda Donaghy, Michael Gallagher and Michael McNamee have been playing a good bit of senior football this year and that’s been a great experience for them as well.

“The U16 season is up and running as well, so it’s been a bit of a juggling act at times, but I think we’ve managed it as best we can and the whole club is excited about Sunday’s final.”

Standing in their way of the title is Drumragh Sarsfields, who like themselves, have been making healthy strides throughout the age groups. McCullagh knows they simply can’t be taken for granted.

“When we played them in the league, we scored a late penalty to put a bit of daylight between us, but it’s one of those games that could have gone either way.

“They have some fantastic players, they’re well organised and we’ve the utmost respect for them. When we played them in the league, that day I said ‘that’s a team that I think we’re going to meet again down the line.’”