East Antrim Battalion Secure Northern Ireland District Title

Having won Intermediate and Senior titles last year, the East Antrim Battalion Junior football team were determined to make it a clean sweep by adding the Junior title to the honours list. Unfortunately, holding all three titles would only be short lived as both the Intermediate side and the Senior side have failed to get passed the group stage this year.

The Junior final was played at Nortel football grounds (many thanks for once again providing a pitch for the final) between Portadown Battalion and East Antrim Battalion. The East Antrim Battalion team was made up of boys from a variety of companies within the East Antrim area (Ballyclare, Carrick, Larne, Raloo, Greenisland). The squad of 16 boys were selected after two rounds of trials involving over 30 boys.

East Antrim had won all their games in making the final, big wins against Belfast and Antrim in the group stages being the highlight. This made them slight favourites coming into the final but it did not prove that way on the night. Portadown dominated proceedings and were very unlucky to go behind to a generous penalty decision after 15 minutes. Jordan Cooper slotted the penalty away with great confidence.

Ryan Rea captained the team and played at the back for East Antrim. His performance on the night was superb and provided an impenetrable barrier for Portadown. They simply could not get past. Lee Campbell played alongside him in an unfamiliar role but he adapted well and can be very pleased with his performance.

East Antrim did create a few half chances in the second half after moving Luke Brownlee up to centre forward but it was Portadown who got the only goal of the second half. As the match progressed, Josh Stewart made a few great claims on through balls for East Antrim, taking a bad knock to the face on one of those occasions, but he had very few shots to deal with. Both sides did push for a winner but, in truth, neither keeper was over worked.

Extra time sprung to life when East Antrim caught Portadown sleeping from a short corner. Jordan Cooper was again the spark and his quick thinking created space in the box before he thumped the ball past a helpless keeper. This looked like it might be the winner but Portadown had other ideas. A poor clearance by the otherwise solid Ben McAuley looped into the air. Lee Campbell got caught for pace and the Portadown forward raced in to calmly slot the ball past the despairing dive of Josh Stewart. This made the score 2-2 and it remained like this until the end of extra time. The match would be decided on penalties.

Curtis Bell, Andrew Ferran, Jordan Cooper and Ben McAuley all scored for East Antrim. Josh Stewart made himself a hero by pulling of a magnificent save on Portadown's third penalty. This meant captain Ryan Rea had the chance to win the shield for East Antrim. Without even a hint of nerves, Ryan coolly put the ball to the keeper's right, perfectly positioned beyond the grasp of the keeper. East Antrim were the winners!

The match was a really good advert for Boys Brigade football. Every boy conducted himself impeccably, a point commented on by the referee afterwards.

East Antrim Squad

Josh Stewart, Dean McCullough, Mark Pollock, Ryan Rea, Jordan Boyce, Lee Campbell, Mark Bingham, Ben McAuley, Jordan Cooper, Adam Boyce, Luke Brownlee, Andrew Ferran, Mark Turner, Jordan Burns, Curtis Bell, Andrew Bunting, Philip Crozier, Alex Kerr, Curtis Gimore

Many thanks to Jim Edwards for refereeing the game and to Jim Holmes for running the competition.