Naomh Padraig 5-16 v 1-11 Creggan

On Saturday afternoon Naomh Padraig added the North Antrim U-16 championship to their Minor ‘B’ title already collected in mid June.

In what has been a busy spell for the Naomh Padraig lads, they had qualified for the final beating Division 1 St Endas in the 1/4 final, before beating Glenarm in the semi final on Wednesday evening sandwiched in between a comprehensive league win over Tir Na Nog on the Tuesday evening.

Creggan who had already won the Division 2 Feile title in May, came with a strong team and made the better start, with centre half forward Joe Connolly causing plenty of bother. They crowded their defence and Naomh Padraig were struggling to make any headway as Creggan eased into a 0-4 to 0-1 lead. However flying wing half forward Rhys Murray settled things with a great score, Jake Feetham fired one over his shoulder and John Og Darragh knocked over a couple of frees to bring his team back into it.

Full forward Conan Devlin and Connolly again pushed Creggan back into the lead. But it was the last 6 minutes of the first half when Naomh Padraig make their push, with captain Cormac Bailey starting to influence the game, and Cillian Bellew reading the danger brilliantly, Naomh Padraig fired 2-2 in that spell, the first goal coming from corner forward Aidan McBride, with points from Darragh and midfielder Killian Cassidy before John Og Darragh collected a long ball and drove the ball into the corner of the net to give them a 5 point lead at half time 2-6 to 0-7.

Creggan came out for the second half and scored the opening point through that man Joe Connolly again. However from that point Naomh Padraig started to get into a bit of rhythm, goalkeeper Liam ‘Toaster’ McCelland puckouts travelling 80m with the breeze, points from Darragh and Cassidy was followed by a great goal from pocket rocket corner forward Conrad Bailey. This was followed by another John Og Darragh goal which opened up a bit of a gap. The game was starting to get away from Creggan but they dug deep and with points from elusive midfielder Ryan Murray and another score from Connolly, was followed by a goal from wing forward Michael Duffin and it was game on again.

Midfielders Killian Cassidy & Ollie Joe McAlonan were starting to influence the game more, Cassidy firing over a couple more scores, it was the turn of wing half forward Rhys Murray to produce a couple of brilliant scores, one from right on the sideline – the score of the game. His wing half forward team mate Oliver Henry working very hard to create the scores. The Naomh Padraig defence was starting to get on top of their battles led by Captain Bailey, with Ben Linton and Lorcan Kinney very solid in full back line, and Cillian Bellew again standing out with his reading of the game and wing backs Malachy McSparren and Patrick McClean clearing a lot of ball.

In the final few minutes sub Micheal ‘Digger’ McAlonan finished the scoring with another goal, his second of the week, to leave Naomh Padraig 5-16 to 1-11 winners.

Afterwards Captain Cormac Bailey collected the shield as Naomh Padraig were crowned North Antrim U-16 ‘B’ champions for 2026.

Team

1. Liam McCelland
2. Ben Linton
3. Lorcan Kinney
4. Patrick McClean
5. Malachy McSparren
6. Ollie Joe McAlonan
7. Cillian Bellew
8. Cormac Bailey
9. Killian Cassidy (0-5)
10. Rhys Murray (0-3)
11. John og Darragh (2-7)
12. Oliver Henry
13. Conrad Bailey (1-0)
14. Jake Feetham (0-1)
15. Aidan McBride (1-0)
16. Micheal McAlonan (1-0)
17. Daniel Murray

Shane McCella