McDaiddelighted with City Cup success

McDaid, who is managing his ‘club’ for the first time this season, was over the moon with the cup success.

“Claudy means a lot to me, I played for Claudy all my life, my father was manager, so as I have said it means a lot to me,” he admitted.

“We had great teams in the 90’s, who won leagues and City Cup’s, so it’s great to put the club back on the map.

“There is always people who have been involved with Claudy over the years, they have been great servants behind the scenes and winning on Saturday is for those guys.

“At the start of the year when I took over I told the lads that we need a few strengtheners and as everybody knows I played with (Clifton) Villa as well, so I brought a few of the lads out and we just started to build from that.

“All the young Claudy players have come on leaps and bounds all season and it’s great for the club.”

The Rovers boss, who was also quick to point out that he was given a lot of help behind the scenes, believes they can be a force to be reckoned with in the Premier Division next season.

“This is my first year running Claudy Rovers and a lot of people helped me, gave me good advice and I was fortunate that the boys all clicked and I’m just delighted for the people of Claudy and the boys,” he added.

“At the start of the year our main aim was to get promoted back into the Premier Division, we did that after starting the season on fire, we sort of lost our way a wee bit in the middle of the season, but when we had to step it up again we came good.

“This is a team for the future, as the average age of the team is in the early 20’s so things are looking bright in Claudy.

“Although we’ll be taking one step at a time, we are only promoted and we’ll go into the Premier Division with the pressure on everybody else and hopefully we can enjoy it and build from this season.”