Dromore girl Caragh is NI’s youngest ever player

DROMARA girl Caragh Milligan made history last week when she became the youngest player to be capped at senior level by Northern Ireland in a competitive match at 15 years and 121 days.

Caragh was voted Player of the Match by her team-mates in a 2-2 draw with Belgium in the UEFA Women’s Euro 2013 qualifier on the Wednesday night in Dessel.

“I’m so, so happy to have the priviledge to be here and I’m glad that Alfie [Wylie, Northern Ireland Ladies coach] had the confidence to pick me in such a big game. I’m delighted,” she said after the game.

“It wasn’t about me though, it was about the performance and getting the result out of the game. We haven’t played so well over the last couple of games.

“We knew all we had to do was put in 110% and we could match them technically so we just had to work hard right to the end.

“I’m grateful to all the girls for recognising my performance as well.”

Caragh currently plays for Glentoran Ladies but up until recently she had been with Dromara Village.

She played for the locals from when she was around eight years old and played in the Lisburn Junior league for the club’s boys team as a 10 year old until she was 14.

Her former coach, Malcolm Hanna, said of Caragh, “Even from the early days of coaching her you could see she had a real special talent and was a stand-out, even among the boys she was playing with and against.”