Limavady Youths win international tournament

A squad of 17 players recently travelled to the English seaside town to take on opponents from around the world, including huge clubs such as Rangers FC, as well as Dutch sides such as VV Zammerdam and Obbicht.

The same group of players has also been to places like Galway and Athlone to win the All Ireland Lions Cup, as well as the Foyle Cup Plate two years running in Londonderry - losing just one game over two years in the local competition and even claiming victory over Norwich City, an English Premiership team at the time.

They also won promotion into the NIBFA A Division and youth sports team of the year at the Limavady Sports Council awards.

Coach Gary Faulkner said: “The competition had a late withdrawal at Under 19 category and asked if Limavady wanted to enter that with the same group of 18 boys playing both age groups.

“What we didn’t realise was that each game was 30 minutes and we now had six games on Monday and five on Tuesday. The games alternated u17 then u19 with only 10 minutes between. When you took the three minute half time break that left seven minutes to finish, shake hands, get the gear and find the next pitch as their were eleven pitches on the go! This meant team selections were made as we walked between pitches and the walk was the largest part of a warm up.

“However the lads managed to fulfil all their fixtures and after playing 11 games they only lost two games out of the 11. This was the only disappointment of the competition as we should have won both.”