All--Ireland honour for United youngsters

The Ballymena United 2003 team who beat North Dublin Schoolboys League to be crowned all-Ireland champions.

This special group will have great memories to cherish from the past few months and the large turnout of family and friends who travelled on Saturday were again immensely proud of all their boys.

This seasons under 13’s are impressing in pre season and have racked up two good wins in the past week.

This new look group are already turning a few head at this age level and enter their debut National League season full of confidence.

At under 14 level United starlet Eamon McLaughlin returns to the East Midlands next week,for a further week’s training with Nottingham Forest, Eamon has impressed many on previous visits and is a key member of the Forest Academy at this age group, as he continues his development.

With the very best young local talen at the Sky Blue Academy,the journey starts for many at the United Mini Soccer school and the football development centre opens its doors on Saturday 7th September for all children aged 6-10 years.

Contact co-ordinator Michael Watterson on 07708307949 for full details or visit the website at www.pitchero.com/clubs/ballymenayouthacademy.

BUYA 2002 4, NDSL 3: Ballymena took an early lead in Dublin when a through ball was latched onto by Mark Butler who calmly chipped it over the keeper. Then a great build up saw Cameron Bailes take the ball and weave through several defenders to slot the ball past the NDSL goalkeeper.

The start of the second half saw NDSL look stronger,United battled well against them but were unable to keep them out, as NDSL’s first strike of the match was placed beyond the reach of ballymena goalkeeper William Crockard.

This spurred NDSL on and they continued to push forward and creating chances and in the end it was too much for the skyblues and NDSL got the equaliser.

This took the match into extra time, and not long after kick off, Mark Butler made the most of a 18 yard box scrap for the ball by placing his shot low into the bottom corner.

Minutes later NDSL got themselves back into it. Once again equalising to hold off Ballymenas celebrations just a bit longer.

With only a minute to spare a corner went to Ballymena. A half clearance from NDSL saw the ball drop to Sean McAllister on the edge of the box who shot high into the NDSL net which turned out to be the winning goal.

In warm-up games, Sean McKay (2) and Aiden Gillen (2) helped United under-13s to a 4-2 win over Glenavon, while goals from McKitterick,Hemphill and Moag gave the under-13s a 3-1 win over Portadown.