The under 16’s made the journey to Dungannon for the semi-finals of the grade one championship on Saturday and unfortunately suffered a heavy defeat to a strong Errigal side who only just a few weeks ago drew with the juveniles in the league but it was a different story on Saturday. The young lads got off the mark first with Kyle Coney striking over the first score of the game and had a chance of goal but were denied by good goalkeeping. The brisk start made by Ardboe was soon replied to by Errigal as they rattled up a number of scores and dominated the majority of the first half and hit the net three times one of the goals beating Mark Coney on an awkward bounce. Towards the end of the first half Matthew Bell netted Ardboe’s first goal but Errigal responded quickly and had an impressive lead at half time of 3-7 to Ardboe’s 1-1.
In the second half it was much the same, although Ardboe were punished harshly by the referee but got two more of their scores from free kicks from Anthony Devlin and Kyle Coney, but the lads couldn’t get within reach of Errigal and towards the end, like the first half Matthew Bell got Ardboe’s second goal but Errigal had enough done to secure victory and go on to meet Coalisland in the final.
The under 16’s who were promoted this year from grade 2 must also look at how well they have done, although there was no silverware reaching a championship semi-final is a great achievement and hopefully the team and management can build on this. The club also extends its thanks to the team and management of the u-16’s for their time and commitment this year.
