St Pauls U16's
first side to lift a Championship
Title
U16s
Make History
A
fantastic performance from the U16s
saw them make history by becoming
the first side from the club to lift
a Championship title.
The
club would like to thank the entire
panel, managers and everyone who helped
throughout the year. All the hard
work has paid off in tremendous fashion
and everyone connected with this excellent
team should be very proud of their
historic achievement.
NAOMH PÓL 3-8 1-10 BREDAGH
Amidst scenes of wild excitement St
Paul's overcame Bredagh by a margin
of four points to clinch the East
Down U-16 B Championship at Teconnaught
on Wednesday evening.
St
Paul's made a number of changes to
their starting line up with Luke Higgins
coming in at right full back, Dermott
Rice starting at right half forward
and Craig Gilroy coming in at right
full forward. Positional changes saw
Tony Galbraith moving from midfield
to full back in a direct exchange
with Greg Walls and Desi Fusco and
Chris Williams keeping the positions
they occupied in the second half on
Saturday. To the delight of the large
St Paul's support all the changes
worked and the whole team upped their
performance to achieve an historic
and well merited win.
St
Paul's were quickly into their stride
and opened the scoring with a Ryan
Tumelty point. Play was even in the
early stages with both teams putting
in great efforts and before long the
sides were level. After ten minutes
another Ryan Tumelty point put St
Paul's back into the lead, a lead
they were not to lose. When Ryan Tumelty
was fouled as he raced through from
midfield, Michael Gibson calmly lofted
the ball over for St Paul's third
point. A period of sustained pressure
from St Paul's saw the ball fall to
Tony Tumelty and "Poular jun"
made no mistake tucking the ball into
the Bredagh net.
Bredagh
then struck back with a point from
their centre half forward before the
best move of the match saw Ryan Tumelty
score a cracking goal. Dermott Rice
made a good interception on the half
way line, passed the ball along the
touchline to Callan Pedan who in turn
fed Ryan, a beautiful run round the
corner back and into the area where
a strongly hit shot left the Bredagh
goalkeeper helpless. A further point
from Ryan opened up an eight point
lead.
In
fairness Bredagh were not giving up
and when St Paul's conceded a penalty
their midfielder, McManus, who had
missed a penalty at the same end in
the drawn game stepped up and made
no mistake on this occasion. Ryan
Tumelty extended St Paul's lead to
six points before Bredagh had their
final score of the half, a point.
On the stroke of half time St Paul's
got the games most telling score when
corner forward Craig Gilroy goaled
to leave the half time score St Paul's
3-5 Bredagh 1-3.
Bredagh
opened the score in the second half
with a point but this was quickly
cancelled when Michael Gibson converted
a free. Bredagh were not giving up
without a fight and a good spell saw
them score four unanswered points
to reduce the margin to four. During
the same spell St Paul's defence were
playing magnificently, not allowing
their opponents a clear shot at goal
and forcing a number of errors as
Bredagh strove to narrow the gap.
Ryan Tumelty, who was having a great
game, stemmed the flow with a point
before Bredagh struck back again with
two points to leave only three between
the teams as time ran out. Finally
Ryan got the insurance point to leave
St Paul's four in front as the final
whistle went. St Paul's had at last
won an underage championship by a
score of 3-8 to 1-10.
Both
teams were exhausted at the end and
full credit to the Bredagh players
who very sportingly congratulated
their opponents as the teams went
off for the presentation.
Martin
Fitzsimons, East Down Chairman, congratulated
both teams on two excellent games
and reminded the large audience that
this was St Paul's first championship
win in what is the clubs 25th anniversary
year. Having finished runners-up in
the U-16 B league and in the B Minor
league hopefully this will lead to
greater success in the years ahead.
St
Paul's; Gareth Wright; Luke HIggins,
Tony Galbraith, Conor McMullan; Kevin
Hinds,Chris Williams, Ronan Pedan;
Desi Fusco, Greg Walls; Dermott Rice,
Ryan Tumelty(1-6), Tony Tumelty(1-0);
Craig Gilroy(1-0), Michael Gibson(0-2),
Callan Pedan.
Subs used; Darren Forde for Dermott
Rice (45 min), Paul Shannon for Craig
Gilroy (52 min)
Subs not used; Rory Davidson, Ciaran
McMullan, Daniel Leebody, Johnny Garrett,
Gregory Burns, Colm Stalford, Paul
Conlon, Matthew Dunning
