Antrim Under 16 Football League – Division 1
St Paul’s 4-10 Portglenone 0-10
St Paul’s wrapped up the Under 16 Football Division 1 League title when they beat Portglenone in Thursday evening’s game at Shaw’s Road.
St Paul’s dominated the opening half and playing down into the Sarsfields end of the ground they opened with two goals in the early stages, the first from Matthew O’Neill and the second from Daire Thornbury. The points flowed freely as the home side stacked up the points and by half time they led by 2-07 to 0-01, the visitors point coming from their excellent midfielder Tom Convery.
The Portglenone boys fared much better in the second half and after O’Neill added another point for St Paul’s Convery came back with two in a row in the 40th and 41st minutes.
Mattew O’Neill got his second goal of the game for the hosts, curling the ball in off the outside of his right foot and substitute Odhran McKeown added a point from play soon afterwards. Jude Gamble got his team’s fourth goal midway through the half with another fine finish before Thornbury tacked on another point.
To their credit Portglenone never gave up the fight and had their best spell of the game between the 40th and 45th minutes when they hit five points without reply, a 2pointer and a single point from Convery plus point from Cillian McKenna and Frank McAleese.
However the evening belonged to this top class St Paul’s side and it was fitting their final score came from their brilliant centre back Oisin McLaren, who gave a masterful display throughout the game.
After the game team captain Eamonn Kearney was presented with the league trophy by Paul Law of Gaelfast, which sparked of scenes of well-deserved celebrations.
TO SEE MORE ACTION PHOTOS FROM THE GAME CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW
https://myalbum.com/album/Ztcenmv92ERMx2/?invite=eebdb6d2-6674-4c2d-9e1a-8500214b455e