Lisburn Youth celebrate Euro glory in Belgium

On Friday, May 25 a party of 14 boys and 4 coaches from Lisburn Youth under 12’s football team made the journey via Dublin to Belgium to take part in the Hageland Cup.

This is a competition open to teams throughout Europe and beyond and has sections for all age groups.

The boys initially had four games on the Saturday against teams from Poland, Belgium, Germany and Lithuania. The boys played superbly and won all four games, conceding only one goal in the process.

The finals day was on the Sunday and pitted the boys against teams from the Netherlands, France and Belgium.

Again the boys were fantastic winning through to the final game were they battled to a 2-0 victory. They had played a total of seven games, scored 22 goals and only conceded one.

There were numerous goalscorers, even goalkeeper Ryan Dowling, and some fantastic individual displays from Caoimhin McConnell, Kyle Patton and Ben Ledlie. The whole squad were outstanding and earned rave reviews from many of the other coaches.

The boys were a credit to themselves, their team and their country and have been asked to return to defend the trophy next year as well as some of the other big tournaments in Holland and Germany.

Special mention must go to the coaches Barry, Francis, Paul and John who guided them to this magnificent achievement in Lisburn Youth’s 40th anniversary.

The team squad was: Dowling, Wilson, Ledlie, McComb (capt), Bailie, Best, McConnell, Patton, Hull, Young, McIlroy, McEnhill, Smyth and Grattan.