The U16 footballers collected their third piece of silverware of the season when accounting for Aghagallon last Sunday in the All County football final. With our opponents having home advantage we knew we could expect a tough game and they started the game much quicker. They raced into a three point lead and even at this early stage things were looking ominous. However, we got ourselves onto the scoreboard following a great solo run from N Maginn who laid the ball off to P McParland and he kicked a long range point. This steadied the nerves and we quickly levelled with points from D Wilson, after good work from M Bradley and P McParland who kicked a 35 metre free straight between the posts.
The first of our goals came after a free flowing move involving P McParland and C Park and when the ball reached D
Wilson he had no hesitation in finishing to the back of the Aghagallon net. A M Bradley point extended our advantage before we added our second goal, with C Park again involved in the build up and this time A Slane hit the back of the net. Goal number three came after M Bradley played the ball across the face of the goal for A Slane to tap into the net for his second goal of the game. M Bradley kicked over a 14 yard free which was followed by an Aghagallon pointed free and in the dying seconds of the half both teams traded points, our score from P McParland to leave the half time score 3-6 to 0-5 in our favour.
Straight from the restart we added our fourth goal with N Maginn soloing through a crowded Aghagallon defense and rifling a fierce shot to the back of the net. The build up to our fifth goal started in our own back line with C Slane giving a quick pass to N Maginn who transferred the ball to M Bradley who fired an unstoppable shot to the net. All credit to Aghagallon as they responded with five unanswered points  but the final score of the game came from M Bradley as he got his second goal of the game to leave us victors on a score of 6-6 to 0-10.
This was an excellent all round team performance and a great feature of our game was the intensity in our work rate and our tackling. We made it difficult for Aghagallon when they were in possession and when we turned the ball over we were clinical in our finishing. This is a talented bunch of players who have done everything that has been asked of them this season and they have reaped the rewards for their endeavour. What makes this all the more worthy of praise and credit, is the fact that 13 of the starting 19 man panel on the day are eligible to play next year, including 10 of the starting 15, so when the county official commenting on how well the side had played after the game said that he looked forward to seeing this team play Minor A competition, this was high praise indeed, given that most will be playing U16 A before they move up to minor level.
A note of thanks also to the large support that made the trip to Aghagallon and cheered the team to victory.
