Ardboe minors travelled as holders of the Ryan Tierney tournament to Clogher on Sunday 17th February 2013 determined to retain the trophy.
Ardboe were drawn against Galbally first and a whirlwind start by the young Rossa side in which they played some fantastic football in spite of this being their first pitch session of the season was enough to see off a spirited Galbally Pearses side. Highlight of the day was a wonderful passing move started by Kevin Coney from a sideline ball, which was transferred to Aidan O’Neill who directed the ball into Michael O’Neill’s path who quickly moved the ball onto Barry Devlin who found an inrushing Michael Lynn for the goal and move of of the day.
Up next was a very young and no less determined and committed Dromore team and the deadlock was finally broken midway through the 2nd half when Barry Devlin won a penalty that was neatly put away by Michael Lynn which ensured another victory.
With one of the teams in the group failing to show, this was enough to put Ardboe through to the final of the competition in which they were to go up against a very good Moy side.
With the aid of a first half breeze Ardboe went into half time with a 1-1 to 0-1 lead, thanks to a booming point from David Mulgrew and the goal coming from a brilliant move up the pitch with Nathan Bell forcing the Moy goalkeeper into a brilliant save but the rebound was met by Barry Devlin who poked the ball to the net.
The Moy Tír na nÓG side were determined to make Ardboe fight all the way to the end and some good work by them resulted in Moy drawing level early into the second half with a well worked goal. However, Ardboe regrouped and made a very positive response and dominated the play to the end with David Mulgrew and Oisín Devlin making significant contributions aided by Kevin Coney who was keeping the Moy attack at bay. Further scores by Barry Devlin and Michael Lynn saw Ardboe win by 2 points in the end to retain the trophy which saw Chris Muldoon add another piece of silverware to the trophy cabinet and another page in his already considerable managerial CV.
Thanks to Clogher club for their very generous invite and for a very professional and well managed tournament and for their outstanding hospitality
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