Foyle Cup Report

Newry City U14s were in the proverbial 'group of death' in this season's Foyle Cup with last years winners Hearts, National League runner ups Ards Youth,and a strong Donegal Select. Newry lost their first game to Hearts (who eventually went on to the final where they lost out on penalties to Celtic) but showed that they will be able to hold their own in next years National League when they bounced back to draw 1-1 with Ards. This was a game that the Newry boys should really have won as they hit the post twice and had a clear penalty decision go against them. Newry then beat a Donegal select 3-2 to progress to the Rose Bowl.

First up for Newry were Ballymoney who they had to play on the same day they beat Donegal. City made several changes for this game but showed the strength in their squad when winning 4-2. In the Semi-Final City played a Fermanagh Select and ran out 4-0 winners to set up a final with Hungarian king-pins Ferencvaros. Unfortunately there was to be no grand finale for the City lads as they lost out to a very strong Hungarian team 3-0.

Newry had a great week of football with assistant referees and even fourth officials at all the games. Unfortunately, however, the final of the Rose Bowl was played with just a referee and no linesmen.  As everyone knows this can lead to wrong decisions being made and in our case,Newry scored what looked to be a legitimate goal but it was ruled offside by the referee. We'll never know whether or not this would have made a difference, but it did somewhat spoil what had been an otherwise well organised tournament. In fact, it seems amazing that a Cup Final can turn out to be the most disorganized game in the whole competition. Nevertheless Newry and Ferencvaros remained friends after the game and we can concentrate on the positive aspects of the whole experience. It would be hard to single anyone out for mention as this was a great team effort for everyone in the squad and the Newry coaches can go into the National League with great confidence for the forthcoming season.