WEEK 1

Crossgar Youth League - Week 1 (week commencing 3rd June 2013)

The 2013 Crossgar Youth League kicked off last week in glorious sunshine, with a record number of children taking part. Supporting this year’s football tournament is SPAR Crossgar, with assistant manager Nicola Magee handing out goodie bags to all participants including some happy Barcelona players who had just beaten Real Madrid 2 – 1. SPAR has also organised a fundraising day for the League this Saturday, 15 June from 9am until 9pm at their shop in Crossgar, with lots of fun activities taking place, including a penalty kick competition.

In the U6 section there was a great start for Napoli with a 7-1 win over Roma with Shane Kernan playing a starring role. In the U10 section there were winning starts for Barcelona , Benfica and Lyon.

In the U8 section Man Utd and Man City shared the spoils in the opener with Callum Rogan and Sean Murphy scoring in a 1-1 draw. Lislea Drive was then treated to a six goal rout by rampant Liverpool over Spurs led by Annacloy’s wonder boy Eamon McKinney. The pick of the goals came from Jackie ‘Hit man’ Hewitt after a typically swashbuckling run through the midfield he slotted the ball past the diving Spurs keeper. Hewitt then slotted another two in for Liverpool to seal a glorious hat-trick. Patrick Quinn and Daniel Spratt were also very impressive for Liverpool and these guys will be hard to beat.

In the game of the night old rivalries were revived when Michael Morgan and Fionn Mulhern went head to head for the third year in a row! In a tight first half honours were even with Mulhern netting for Chelsea and Morgan equalising just before half time. Arsenal started the second period stronger and good work by Bebhionn Rogan put Jack Kerr through to pick his spot and put the Gunners ahead. Going behind seemed to galvanise Chelsea and they immediately hit back with Reza Forbes picking out Ralph McMullan who hit a first time shot to draw the teams level once again. The next attack saw Mulhern driving forward from midfield but as he was about to pull the trigger a tackle from behind prevented the goal scoring opportunity. Mulhern dusted himself down to take the free kick which was beautifully curled over the wall and into the top corner of the net. Advantage Chelsea who now had all the possession but one last Arsenal break saw a solo run from Michael Morgan finish with the ball being put beyond the diving Jude Perry. A fair result on the night and the league fixture between these two sides at the end of July promises to be another cracker.

In the U12 section, a very strong Ireland team defeated England 2-0 with goals from Dylan Boyle and Lucas Schroeder Rebelo with Joshua Smyth playing excellent in defence. In a very tight affair Italy defeated Holland 3-2 with two goals from Adam Hession and one from Oisin Mulholland. Germany defeated Spain 3-0 with Arthur Johnson, Shay McGrattan and Christy McCallan impressive for the winners.

The Crossgar Youth league continues this week with the first round of league fixtures, all the updated teams and fixtures are available on the website http://www.crossgaryouthleague.com .

Other results

Napoli 7 Roma 1

Liverpool 6 Spurs 0

Arsenal 3 Chelsea 3

U10

Man Utd 1 Man City 1

U12

Ireland 2 England 0

Italy 3 Holland 2

Germany 3 Spain 0