Winning Ballybofey Utd U11 Team
BALLYBOFEY United’s U11 team travelled to Aileach in Burnfoot and came away as CHAMPIONS in a very strong tournament with county teams and regional teams taking part along with several Derry teams.
First up was a match against Sligo B this is one half of sligo’s county team this match finished 0-0 with United dominating play and very unlucky not to win the match.
Match 2 was against Tristar from Derry and Ballybofey put in a brilliant performance and came away 3-0 winners with Barry McGhee, Daithi McMahon and Cathair Brady devenney scoring the vital goals.
Match 3 was a crucial match as Utd had to win to top the group as opponents Oak Athletic had won their first two matches.
Utd took the lead through Barry McGhee but then conceded to square the match up but with five minutes to go Ruairi Callaghan met a Sean Martin corner perfectly to put them ahead again and they held out brilliantly to top the group.
The Semi final saw Ballybofey taken on the Inishowen league team in this match and with the match ending 0-0 it went to penalties to decide who would make the final and United came out on top 4-3 in sudden death with goalkeeper Odhran Bonar saving 2 penalties to take them through to the final.
In the final the lads came up against Sligo’s A team.
They trailed 1-0 for a time before Ruairi Callaghan equalised.
From here Ballybofey really showed their grit to fight for every ball and when one fell to Oisin Duffy in midfield he caught it on the half volley from 25 yards to fire past Sligo’s keeper to seal the win for the Donegal lads.
This was an outstanding achievement for a small club team to come out on top against county and regional teams and strong Derry teams – so the future is very bright for Ballybofey United!
