History repeating for Wallace High School

The Wallace squad. Pic by Rowland White / PressEye

The two sides met in the final last year, with Wallace emerging as winners, and the Lisburn School certainly hope they can repeat the feat on Wednesday at Comber Road.

Wallace Captain Sean Murray said: “I know the feeling from last year when we won the McCullough and then the Burney, it was the double, which every team wants to do, it’s every teams dream, and they’ll be out to do that this year.

“We just need to make sure we are up for it, retain the cup and go out and give it our all.”

Murray saw his side through a semi final, which saw the local side go from 6-2 ahead to 6-5 with just minutes to go, making it a nervous finish for his side.

Vice Captain Mark McNellis added: “I don’t know whether it was a bit of over confidence, but we let them back into the game having been 5-1 up and 6-2 up, although a bit dodgy near the end but thankfully we got through it and into the final.”

Wallace Coach Errol Lutton commented: “I’m looking forward to it, the guys are looking forward to it.

“They’ve played well all year, been in a couple of the finals, the McCullough and the Irish Schools’.

“The Burney Cup is a hard one to win. We’re playing a good team in the final in Banbridge, who they played last year, so it should be a good final.

“It’s certainly two well matched teams, both have representative players at 16’s, 18’s, 21’s, quite a few playing for their club senior team as well, so there’ll probably not be much in it, based on the fact that both teams have already had a win each between them this year.”

He continued: “Hopefully it will be a good spectacle, I think there’ll be quite a good crowd down as well and hopefully see some good hockey.

“It’s a really good experience for these guys to play in front of a big crowd, which they maybe don’t get every Saturday at their normal school game.

“Everybody’s looking forward to it and hopefully it’ll be a good final no matter who wins.”

• See more videos from the Wallace Hockey Captain and Vice Captain on Tuesday and Wednesday.