Congratulations to the St Brides Primary School team who have made it through to the final of the Aontroim Allianz Cumann na mBunscol Raffo Cup Football Championship. The panel of boys, the majority of which play their gaelic football with St Brigids, won their Semi final against Bunscol Phobail Féirste after extra time in a fantastic game of football at Woodlands on Thursday afternoon.
After a fairly even start that the St Brides boys went into the half time break 5-1 down, after a Bunscol boys turned up the pressure in the last minutes, scoring 4 unanswered points. The half time team talk from Henry Duffin and Sinead O’Prey really did the job as the boys in blue, came charging out of the blocks, and started to claw back the gap. Indeed so dominant were St Brides in the early part of the second half they went into the lead by two scores.
With the clock ticking down in normal time the Bunscol boys went for broke and threw men forward. Despite some valiant defending from St Brides the boys in green managed to score with the last kick of the game.
After some slight confusion regarding the scores, it emerged that the game was called a draw by the referee, to the surprise of both teams, extra time was called for. Bunscol won the throw in and proceeded to advance on St Brides goal, after some neat interplay between the forwards a goal was scored, St Brides were now three points down.
However this St Brides team would not give up easily, and they promptly played the ball from the keeper through the team and delivered a goal at the other end of the pitch. They then made sure that the ball was to stay in the Bunscol half and added two more points before the extra time break. As the game entered the second half of extra time every boy on the pitch dug in deep to try and win it for their team.
Chasing the game and needing a goal to win it, the Bunscol boys threw their team forwards, too late for points they laid siege to the St Brides goalmouth needing a three pointer a number of goalmouth scrambles ensued. Entering the last seconds of the game, a shot was released goal ward heading into the bottom corner. However a St Brides’ toe somehow managed to get to it and was pushed round the post.
The referee blew for full time and game ended, the St Brides boys through to the final, but pushed all the way by an excellent Bunscol Phobail Féirste team. Congratulations to all boys and their teachers who contributed to making the game the great spectacle it was.
The Raffo Cup is the most prestigious competition in Boys Football competitions dating back to 1923 when the Belfast Schools Leagues were established at a meeting in Raffo’s cafe in Divis Street. Since then countless dedicated primary school teachers have overseen the development of a comprehensive gaelic games programme in the primary sector throughout in the city.
