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The Down U14 A and B
teams both performed brilliantly in the
recent Ulster Blitz competition held in
Killeavy. Playing in both the Cup and
Shield competitions, both teams made it
to their respective finals before
cruelly falling at the last hurdle.
Due to the recent success
of underage football in Down, they were
promoted to the A Division where they
would face heavyweights Tyrone, Monaghan
and Cavan. Down also entered a team
into the Shield competition, in which
they were defending champions.
The A team performed
extremely well, given this was their
first time in the top flight. They
shook off a close defeat by Tyrone (1-3
to 1-5) in the first match and went on
to beat Cavan 1-6 to 0-3. They finished
the round robin games with a resounding
win over Monaghan 4-3 to 0-0. Making it
through to the final, they again faced
Tyrone and hoped to reverse the previous
result. However they were cruelly
denied the title by the same scoreline
as in the first match, 1-3 to 1-5. Top
performances from Down came from Sinead
McNamee, Ciara Devlin, Emma Drainey and
Downpatrick’s Aine McCurry
Not to be outdone, the B
team also did their county proud and
overcame neighbours Armagh on the way to
the final where they lost out to
Fermanagh by three points. Kirsty
Fitzpatrick from Bryansford and
Bredagh’s Sarah Montgomery gave the
outstanding performances.
All in all, a great day
for Down’s underage teams. While they
will have been disappointed not to pick
up one of the titles on offer, for both
teams to come so close to victory,
especially in Down’s first year in the A
Division was a great achievement.
Managers Francie Toner, Paul O’Reilly,
Kyla Trainor and Tommy McCauley were
rightly proud of their teams on the day
and will be looking forward to the start
of the Ulster Championship campaign.
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