The U14 Final had paired St Columban’s Kilkeel and St Malachy’s Castlewellan in what was a rematch of the year 8 final of 2 years previous in which St Columbans won so the little Kilkeel school probably entered the game as slight favourites which is hard to believe considering the huge size difference in the 2 schools!

The U16 Final had paired St Malachy’s and De La Salle Downpatrick in what was a repeat of the U14 Final 2 years previous in which St Malachy’s won and went onto reach an Ulster Final where they were narrowly beaten by St Ciarans Ballygawly.

The opening game in the U14 Final saw the minnows St Columbans with just less than 300 pupils take on the mighty St Malachy’s the biggest vocational school in Down but despite being considerably smaller than their opponents raced into a 2=02 to 0-02 lead after 15 mins with Rory Phillips and Neil Rodgers getting the goals and Martin Devlin getting both St Malachy’s scores.

The first half ended with both sides exchanging points Luke Hogg for St Malachys and Neil Rodgers at the other end to leave the half time score St Columbans 2-04 St Malachys 0-04.

After a heavy downpour in the first half both sides emerged from the changing rooms with new jerseys on and it was St Malachys who started the brighter scoring after just 14seconds from a well taken Chris Mc Kay score. At this stage the massive midfield pairing of Nathan Smith and Ryan Gordon began to exert their influence and St Malachys kept up the pressure with a goal and 2 points in a ten minute spell to leave the sides level at 2-04 to 2-04.

It was after this sustained 10 minutes of pressure that St Columbans started playing the stylish and slick bland of football they have been playing all year to get them this far. After Conor Doran exchanged 2 points a piece with Mc Kay and Devlin the game took a big twist with St Columbans scoring a goal from Ryan Sloan and another from substitute Conor Sloan and 2 points from Captain Doyle and Doran to leave 8 points between the teams with 4 mins left.

St Malachys though didn’t quit and in a frantic last 4 mins scored 2 points from Devlin and a mistake by St Columbans Goalkeeper Murnion who had been excellent all day left 3 points between the teams going into injury time but a fantastic hunger and workrate in the last couple of minutes from the Kilkeel men meant they hung on to give Eddie O Hagen and Steven Poacher great delight in delivering another county title to the tiny Mourne School.

After the game an ecstatic manager Eddie O Hagen said “ Im absolutely delighted in our lads. They stood up to a tremendous challenge and showed they have true Mourne Spirit” Coach Steven Poacher also added “ Our workrate, discipline, tackling and blocking were all of the highest standard today, that’s what won us the game and what an advert for vocational schools football over a thousand people here to see a fantastic game between 2 sides who were very evenly matched.”