U-17 Football Development Squad Jim McGuigan Cup

Inniskeen witnessed a festival of underage inter-county football last weekend with Monaghan U-17’s playing their counterparts of Antrim and Derry in the Jim McGuigan Cup Qualifiers. This is a new competition to honour the memory of Derry native Jim McGuigan. In all honesty, the panel of Monaghan players was depleted as a number of this panel were representing the Co. Minors in Enniskillen but this did not perturb the management of Garrett Coyle and Colin Malone or indeed the players. First up for Monaghan were Antrim and the Farney Boys started like lightning with goals from Latton’s Stephen McCabe and Carrickmacross’s Aaron Jones inside the first five minutes. This set the tone for the game and their lead was built upon by some fine points from Aughnamullen’s Niall Duffy and Emyvale’s Daithi Colton. At half-time Monaghan led by 3-7 to 0-0. It was more of the same in the second half with Stephen McCabe and Daithi Colton scoring three goals between. The defence was well marshalled by Killanny’s Robert Berg, ably assisted by Mustafia Gamal from Monaghan Harps and James McElwaine of Clones. Monaghan’s midfield powerhouses of Stephen Cunningham of Donaghmoyne and Sean Mc Mahon of Toome ensured that Monaghan ran out comfortable winners 6-13 to 0-1.

After a break of 40 minutes, Monaghan regrouped to face Derry. Once again, Monaghan were fast out of the traps scoring 1-1 inside the first two minutes through Donaghmoyne’s Thomas Finnegan. This was a lead that would not be relinquished as Michael Tierney of Eire Og also added to the score sheet. There was excellent blocking on show in defence from Scotstown’s Jack Turley and Latton’s Thomas Lynch to keep the Derry forwards at bay to ensure that Monaghan led by 1-8 to 0-3 at halftime. A feature of this team’s play was their work-rate and tackling which was epitomised by Truagh’s Aaron Treanor and Scotstown’s Brendan Boylan. Caolan McGee from Truagh was excellent in goals especially with the accuracy of his kick-outs. Monaghan proved to be wasteful in front of the goals in the second half but the introduction of Conor Mc Kenna of Scotstown and Darragh Mc Kenna of Toome helped settled Monaghan. The score of the day came from John Mc Guirk ensuring that Monaghan ran out 1-11 to 1-06 winners and qualifying for the knock-out stages of the competition.

Team Managament of Garrett Coyle and Colin Malone were delighted with how the games went. “We feel that these group of players represented their county, club and families with a lot of pride today. Their backs were against the walls and they gave it everything they had. Their hard work and effort got rewarded. We’ve only had a few sessions with the group but they are trying to execute the game plan efficiently. It’s great knowing we’ve a couple of more months to work with this group knowing we are in the knock-out stages of this competition.”

Panel and scorers for the day were;

Caolan McGee (Truagh Gaels)

Mustafia Gamal (Monaghan Harps),

Aaron Treanor (Traugh Gaels, 0-1),

James McElwaine (Clones),

Jack Turley (Scotstown, 0-1),

Robert Berg (Kilanny, Capt),

Thomas Lynch (Latton),

Stephen Cunningham (Donaghmoyne, 0-2),

Sean Mc Mahon( Toome, 0-2),

Niall Duffy (Aughnamullen, 0-4),

Stephen McCabe (Latton, 3-1),