2nd Ahoghill journeyed to the heart of County Tyrone to compete in the opening round of this year's Under 15s Football competition.
A total of twenty teams from Northern Ireland had entered and were drawn into four groups of five teams. Our group matches were hosted by 1st Ardstraw in the Newtownstewart Leisure Centre, with 3rd Kilkeel and 1st Lisburn also in attendance. 3rd Portadown were unable to compete as originally planned.
Match 1 – 1st Lisburn
The boys started strongly against a well prepared Lisburn team, who took advantage of their squad depth with several substitutions throughout the match. Despite this, the five boys of Ahoghill dug deep to outplay their fresh legged opponents. Two goals from Matthew, and another from Luke secured an encouraging 3-0 win.
Match 2 – 3rd Kilkeel
Ahoghill’s character shined against group favourites Kilkeel. They frustrated their opponents with good possession in the first half and tireless pressing throughout to break up play. Luke claimed another goal, but had an excellent lobbed shot harshly disallowed when it was deemed over the “head height” allowed in the rules.
Unable to play through our defence Kilkeel resorted to long shots, which proved effective thanks to a number of unfortunate deflections. The final score a misleading 5-1 defeat.
Match 3 – 1st Ardstraw
With progression on the line, the boys did well to handle the pressure. The bigger boys of Ardstraw tried to use their physical advantage but were undone by our teamwork and technical skills. Thomas opened the scoring, followed by another goal from Luke, and a second and final goal by Thomas to claim another 3-0 win.
The final results meant 3rd Kilkeel and 2nd Ahoghill both progressed from Group 1, and await the draw for the next round of the competition. The boys were treated to a well earned McDonalds in Omagh on the way home.
Congratulations to our boys for their resilient performance throughout, despite their smaller stature they were a worthy match for their older opponents.
Special thanks to the boys involved with other football teams for giving up their time to represent 2nd Ahoghill.
| Team | Win | Draw | Loss | Goals For |
Goals Against |
Goal Difference |
Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3rd Kilkeel | 3 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 2 | 15 | 9 |
| 2nd Ahoghill | 2 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 6 |
| 1st Lisburn | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 9 | -5 | 3 |
| 1st Ardstaw | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 12 | -12 | 0 |
| 3rd Portadown | Did Not Compete | ||||||
