A thrilling Under 10 and Under 8 Gaelic football tournament was played out at Kirkwoods earlier this month. The tournament was attended by St Brigids Belfast, Clann Éireann Lurgan, Pomeroy Plunketts, Tír na nÓg Randalstown, Lámh Dhearg Hannahstown and St Patrick’s Lisburn. There were 18 teams in total, about 150 children and over 45 matches. Clann Éireann were eventual winners with Pomeroy Plunketts coming second and St Patrick’s coming third. However the real winners were the children, sport and the GAA. The U10 B team won against Tír na nÓg and Lámh Dhearg with narrow defeats against the rest.
The Lisburn U10A team got off to an unfortunate start in the tournament losing by 1 point to Tír na nÓg in their first match. St Patrick’s were slow off the mark and were always playing catch up. However there were 2 super goals from Mark Boylan.
The second game was against last year’s winners Pomeroy and a much more determined team won easily with Ciara Marshall taking her scores and Jack Whitfield working extremely hard in the midfield area. Defence of Rory Flynn and Eamon Compston kept Pomeroy’s attack at bay with great blocks.
The third game was against Clan Éireann from Lurgan. This was a tough game with the lead changing several times. With 2 minutes to go, St Patrick’s were losing by a point until Mark Boylan unleased an unstoppable shot that found the back of the net quickly followed up by a point by Conor Stinton, an absolute cracker game.
The fourth game against St Brigid’s was another sea-saw battle with the St Patrick’s keeper pulling off 2 saves but had no chance with 2 controversial penalties. St Patricks tried to pull it back with fine work by Peter Drayne and Conor Hall but ran out of time.
