Well done to both St Patrick's & St Brigid's Claudy and St. Colm's Draperstown who won the under 16 and under 14 vocational school football championships this year respectively. I wasn't able to get to the Under 16 game because I was touring around Vietnam, however I hear Claudy deserved the victory on the day against the reigning All Ireland Champions St. Paul's Kilrea.
I did make it to the Under 14 final between St. Colm's and St. Mary's Claudy and I was very glad I did. Despite the extremely cold weather it was a very good tight final. St. Colm's I would say edged it throughout, although the game never looked certain mainly down to the fact that St. Mary's seemed to be able to score goals at will. In the end St. Colm's ran out winners by five points.
Good luck to both sides now in their quest for an Ulster Title. St. Paul's raised the bar last year, it would be nice to continue that progress in 2009.
On Monday 14th December St. Colm’s Draperstown and St. Mary’s Clady went head to head in the first of the Derry Under 16 Vocational school football semi finals at Glen Maghera.
Conditions were surprisingly good if not a little cold but things warmed up once Barry Cassidy through the ball in between these two strong sides. After a close first half St. Mary’s Clady went in 2-01 to 0-04 getting crucial goals at the right time. St. Colm’s Draperstown came out desperate to make amends for a poor first half by their standards and managed to get in front with only minutes left of normal time went Clady finished a superb move with the ball in the back of the net to tie things up 3-01 to 1-07 at full time.
Extra time was played and it was to be St. Mary’s Clady who kept their composure slightly better to win the game on the narrowest of margins 3-04 to 1-09 and book their place in this year’s Under 16 Vocational Schools Finals.
