Congratulations must go to Magherafelt Sky Blues U15s for a fantastic win following a great performance away to the league leaders Culmore. Apart from the 5 - 8 minutes of extra time when the Sky Blues lost their influential centre half Jason Ritchie due to injury, and their discipline to what we will put down to youthful exuberance, this was the teams best performance of the season.

Right from the start the Sky Blues showed a spirit and work rate far beyond what could be expected from such a young team. The Sky Blues dominated the first half building on the rock solid platform established by the defence. Jonnie Ritchie was assured in goal and the back four of Tomás McLaughlin, Ben McAllister, Jason Ritchie and the impressive Fintan Kerr (man of the match for the second week running) never gave the Culmore attack a glimpse of the Sky Blues goal. Aedan Kerr and Oisín Moran produced excellent first half performances tormenting the Culmore full backs. Oisín Moran opened the scoring with a great drive into the roof of the Culmore net following a great though ball from Ciaran Moore. The Sky Blues began to exert real control in midfield with the ever solid Gary Doyle snapping at the Culmore midfield and providing great cover in front of the back four. Shane Heavron started to pull the strings in midfield and extended the Sky Blues lead with a fantastic shot from the right corner of the Culmore box, driving the ball with the outside of his left foot into the bottom corner of the net. The 'Wee Sky Blues' went in at half time with a commanding three goal lead after Ciaran Moore scored a wonder goal lofting the ball over the Culmore keeper’s head from all of thirty yards.

The Sky Blues kept up their high work rate in the second half and were in complete control of the game right up to extra time. The back four were more than a match for the Culmore front line and with Ciaran Moore and Nathan McCullough stretching the Culmore defence the 'Wee Sky Blues' never looked like conceding. But then it all went horribly wrong. With the game approaching the final whistle Jason Ritchie took a bad knock on the ankle and following his replacement the defence dropped deeper and deeper. Culmore pulled one back with an excellent strike from the edge of the box giving Jonnie Ritchie no chance. Then the young Sky Blues lost their discipline after a nasty challenge on Shane Heavron. The Sky Blues went down to 10 men, Aedan Kerr showing the ref too much dissent. Culmore continued to pile the pressure on and pulled another goal back to ensure a tense finish to the game. Lucky for the young Sky Blues there was no more time for Culmore to cause any more problems.

The only disappointing thing about this match was that we did not learn any lessons from Matthew Higgins' sending off against Coleraine. I hope this is the last time I have to write about a lack of discipline from our team for yet again it only causes us pain.

But ending on a positive note, if we continue to perform like we did today and keep the great team spirit we are showing I believe we will give anyone a game. The pleasing thing for Joe, Decky and myself is that we are developing as a team each time we play and the improvement from the start of the season is really impressive.

Well done!

Paul G.

WELL DONE LADS .......GREAT RESULT

Stunning result considering we lost 4-1 at home. U15 really starting to develop. Well done to the team and coaches.