Thursday 22nd February 2024
Allianz Cumann na mBunscol Thír Eoghain held the Heat 9 of its 2024 Boys’ Indoor Football competition in the Cookstown Leisure Centre. The seven schools who attended this heat were: Holy Trinity P.S. Cookstown, St Joseph's P.S. Galbally, St. Mary's P.S. Dunamore, St Mary's P.S. Pomeroy, St Patrick's Donaghmore, St Patrick's Mullinahoe, St. Peter's P.S. Moortown, all in the hope of becoming Heat 9 winners and getting the chance to play in the Tyrone Indoor County Finals.
With the seven teams present our schools were drawn out of a hat into two groups.
Section ‘A’ featured 4 teams.
St Mary's P.S. Pomeroy, St Patrick's P.S. Mullinahoe, Holy Trinity P.S. Cookstown, St Patrick's P.S. Donaghmore.
Section 'B' was made up of the three remaining teams:
St Joseph's P.S. Galbally, St. Mary's P.S. Dunamore, St. Peter's P.S. Moortown
The group stages ran very smoothly with some superb football and excellent skills on show.
Pomeroy and Ardboe from group A played in the opening game with Reilly Bloomer and Luke Donnelly showing well for Pomeroy, but despite their best efforts Ardboe took a grip on the game late on with Conall O’Neill and Shea Canavan impressing. The very busy Cahair McNamee also stood out for Pomeroy on the day and despite picking up a knock showed some great skills.
Game two, from group B, had St Peters Moortown play last year’s champions St Joseph's P.S. Galbally. This was a brilliant game that went right to the wire before Galbally scored in the last few seconds to take full points. Michael McGeary and Eunan Clarke had excellent games for the Galbally boys and Conan Crozier was exceptional for the very unlucky Moortown boys.
In game three Holy Trinity P.S. played St Patrick’s Donaghmore. In the opening minutes Donaghmore found the Holy Trinity boys very hard to break down, especially Freddy O’Hare who had an excellent game, but the very sharp and skilful Daniel O’Neill eventually managed to find a way through. Despite being under a great deal of pressure, Bailey Muldoon and Kain Kelly stood out for Holy Trinity as they tried to close down a very impressive Donaghmore team.
Game four saw the two unbeaten teams St Patrick's P.S. Donaghmore and St Patrick's P.S. Mullinahoe meet each other. Lorcan Barr got the Donaghmore boys off to a strong start and he continued this form for the whole game. For Ardboe Conn McKeown had an excellent game, driving from deep to try and close the gap. He was helped up front by the very hard working Proinsias O’Neill who was causing the Donaghmore boys’ problems. However, the Donaghmore boys pulled away to leave them unbeaten in the group.
Our fourth game came from group 2 again and saw St. Peter's P.S. Moortown v St. Mary's P.S. Dunamore. Matthew Mulgrew started well for St Mary’s winning a lot of ball and getting a few good turnovers and was well supported by Eunan Monaghan. Moortown had great performances from John Og Doris and Kayden Ryan to come out on top after a good attacking display. Ethan McCormack for St Marys showed a good eye for goal that continued in the next few games, but his efforts couldn’t prevent St Peters claiming victory.
After all the group games group stages were over the unbeaten St Patrick's P.S. Donaghmore topped Group A with St Patrick’s Mullinahoe in second place. In group B an unbeaten St Joseph's P.S. Galbally came out on top with St. Peter's P.S. Moortown finishing as runners up.
This gave us our Semi Final pairings.
In Our First Semi Final St Patrick's Donaghmore Met St Peters Moortown. At this stage the Donaghmore boys were full flow showing a wide array of skills to overcome a brave St Peters challenge. Again, the very talented Conan Crozier had a superb game, but Donaghmore’s strength in depth really showed, Lorcan Barr in particular stood out in helping the Donaghmore boys to secure victory.
In our second Semi Final St Patrick’s Mullinahoe and St Joseph’s Galbally met each other. This was probably the best performance from the Ardboe boys with some excellent saves from Shea O’Hagan and a couple of good interceptions from Jack McGuckin the Ardboe men withstood the formidable challenge from the previously unbeaten Galbally team. Despite the narrow defeat Galbally had some very impressive displays from the likes of McGeary, Clarke and Hurston, but they just couldn’t get the vital scores to get them past Ardboe on the day.
In the final, sadly for the Ardboe boys, St Patrick’s Donaghmore produced their best performance of the day. It was hard to pick out a single player or sub that didn’t stand out for them. The Ardboe boys battled bravely and some good play from Shea Canavan and scores from Conn McKeown gave them some hope but this was short lived as Tiernan Winters and Lorcan Barr hit goals to give Donaghmore a lead they wouldn’t lose in a very composed display.
Tyrone captain and teacher Peter Harte. was delighted to see his St. Patrick’s P.S. Donaghmore boys win this section with a very talented bunch of players. They have now booked themselves a place in the Tyrone Boys Indoor Co. Final on Wednesday the 6th of March in MUSA.
We wish these gifted lads well.
Ádh mór oraibh!
A huge word of thanks goes to all the schools and teachers involved today. As well as complementing them on their performances we need to complement them on their behaviour and attitude. They were all a credit to their schools and families and the Heat today was a pleasure to run.
Finally, a word of thanks to our referee Marty Coyle for doing all our games today and to the friendly staff of the Cookstown Leisure Centre for helping us ensure the heat ran smoothly.
To all concerned, Go raibh míle maith agaibh!
@AllianzIreland
