The girls had an early start on Saturday, 26 June 2010. We were delighted to take our place among the 16 teams in the Carryduff annual U12 blitz. With our first match at 10.10am we played three games in our group against Castlewellan, Carryduff, and Glenravel. We had a mix of results in these games with some great fast and flowing football being played against some great teams.
We eventually qualified for the plate side of the competition and faced Saul in the quarter finals. This was where the excitement started and many of our players upped their game on the bigger pitch. We came in at half time one point down against a strong breeze so we knew if we played it right we could take them in the second half, which we duly did with some lovely controlled play and our hand passing was beginning to become more fluent.
Next up were Antrim king pins St Paul’s in the semis. Our girls took control of the game from the start but just couldn’t convert our chances. The team continued to control the game but were only a goal ahead at half time. We came out in the second half and got the scores needed and snuffed out their attack. We won and were in the final to great applause from the fantastic support of our numerous parents, brothers, sisters and friends.
Into the final we went against Lurgan Sarsfields, we had come so far on the day and were not going to let this slip away. The game was a real ding dong affair with the Lurgan side giving us a stern challenge and they went in at half time a point up. We came out in the second half and give them everything we had. At the back we kept it tight, in the middle we ran our legs off, and up front we were first class and got the scores to defeat the Armagh girls.
This team is capable of great things we had super performances in each section of the pitch. On the day our supporters were in large numbers and fine voice, thanks goes to them for their help in making us believe we could get over the finish line.
Thanks also to our hosts Carryduff for a well run competition.
