Magherafelt High School year 10 students were beaten but unbowed against a strong Cullbackey High School team. It was the second year in a row that the boys had reached the final and unfortunately the second year in a row they had lost, losing previously to Limavday Grammar.

On route to the final the boys had played some fantastic football, with some convincing wins against much larger opposition.

League

V Garvagh (Won 2-1)

V Cookstown (Won 3-0)

V Domican (Won 2-1)

V St Pius (Won 2-0)

Semi-Final

V Coleraine College (Won 2-1)

This year results however was a big improvement on last year's result, qualifying for the knock-out stages onlt as runner's up in their group.

The games had started well for MHS boys, having two chances before Kyle Best held his nerve for a cool finish to put MHS ahead after only five minutes. This seemed to stir the Cullybacky boys into action however, who used the windy conditions to their advantage to send a barrage of long balls down their big front men, who dominated the airways.

Hard lessons were quickly learned on the pitch and the pre-game strategy of playing the ball down the wings didnt't materialise. Were it not for the heroics or Andrew Nesbitt and Robbie Gibson, the scoreline could have been much worse.

Unfortunatelty the boys saved their worst performance of the year for the final with only Kyle Colgan performing anywhere near his best. Naturally the boys were bitterly disppointed, a result which they hope to put right next year by winning promotion.

G Burns

12th march 2010