Blayney and carrick played the under 16 championship final in Blackhill last Saturday morning. Both teams must take great credit for the high level of skill that was produced under very wet conditions. The game got underway and both teams were well matched early on. It was blayney who opened the scoring with a great point of his weaker side by Logan Mc Quillan. At this point blayney were very dominant and were very wasteful in their play. Blayney’s midfield pairing of Cian O’Connor and Hugh Brennan were solid, it was on the half forward line that blayney were doing the most damage. Craig Callan, logan Mc Quillan and Gavin Kelly were competing for every ball and they had an overall total of 9 pts between them. The half back line of Stephen beattie, David Irwin and Jack Morris was solid, anything that did manage to get past was easily dealt with by the full back line of Caleb Mc Ardle, Declan Hughes and Niall Carville. Blayney soon raced into a 6 pts to 0 score line, at this point they were playing some great hurling. The Blayney puck outs by Ciaran Duffy was excellent and had great distance to them. Blayney’s ability to compete in the wet conditions and their ability to make clean strikes on the sliotar helped them into this lead. Carrick however had still great fight in them and eventually put together a good passage of play and they were rewarded them with a goal. This changed the game and suddenly Carrick were coming on strong, blayney weathered the storm and a great long distance free by logan Mc Quillan settled blayney back into their rhythm. Another long ball played in was well controlled by Ryan Mc Kearney and he turned and stuck it over the bar. There was great work on the blayney full forward line by Ryan Buckley, Ryan Mc Kearney and Joey Hughes, they were a constant threat every time the ball was played into them. This now left the score 0.8 to 1.0 at half time, Blayney made a change bringing on Mark Brennan for the second half.

Carrick were soon into their stride for the second half and they scored three points without reply. Suddenly there was real contest between these two great rivals and there was only two between them, both teams must take great credit for the high level of performance that was on show. Carrick were now putting on pressure and looked like the team that had the momentum to go on and win the match. Blayney soon realised they were in a match and soon started to match Carrick’s desire, two points in a row by logan Mc Quillan soon settled them down and Blayney now had the momentum and drive going forward. They were winning all the challenges in midfield and with ten minutes to go Blayney found the carrick net, A great high ball in by David Irwin found it’s way into the carrick net. Two minutes later Cian O Connor slotted over for the final point and this left Blayney with a seven point lead going into the last few minutes. Carrick did get a 20 metre free that was tipped over the bar by the excellent Ciaran Duffy. The final whistle went and the blayney lads were delighted to have won the under 16 championship. Overall this was a great performance in very tricky conditions, Everyone played their part and a special mention must go to Logan Mc Quillen who received a well deserved man of the match award. His 6 points and overall play was excellent on the day. The management would like to thank all the parents for their support through the year.

Congratulations to Niall Garland and Donaghmoyne on winning the Monaghan Intermediate football championship last Sunday .