Shield final winning goal stuff of dreams, says Kane

The midfielder, who turned 20 between Saturday’s Irish Cup defeat by Linfield and last night’s Shield win against the same opponents, scored a memorable goal to put Ballymena 3-1 ahead, which was just enough to repel the Blues’ late onslaught which saw them twice strike the woodwork in injury time.

“Absolutely brilliant - I can’t even explain how I feel!” said Eoin, an IT apprentice.

“It’s my first trophy with the club in my first full season with the club so it means a lot to me.

“I couldn’t have dreamt it any better, to score what turned out to be the winning goal.

“I’m not sure why I was that far up the pitch at that stage, to be honest!

“There was a bit of a scuffle in the penalty area and I thought I would make my way through the players and it came to me.

“When it hit the underside of the crossbar I had no idea whether it had crossed the line or not - I was glad to see it bounce back up into the roof of the net. My heart went crazy at that point!

“We really needed that trophy win to give everyone a lift.

“It’s hard to beat that feeling, especially for the fans - you only have to look at the numbers who turned up for the final to know how much it means to them.

“We really deserved that for all the effort we put in.

“We had a good idea after Saturday what Linfield would bring so Glenn and the coaching staff came up with the right plan to nullify what they had done on Saturday,” added Kane.