We may have lost the Match but we can say that our team played their hearts out and ran the St.James team very close in a thrilling encounter in the final of the Major League Cup at Wayside Celtic.
The wet conditions did not deter or dampen the fighting spirit of our team.
Belmont Started with Fiona McNulty as Striker , Marcus Boggan , Brian Cuddy and John Mulcahy in midfield and the rock solid defensive partnership of Mark Cloonan and Luke Sheehan and Conor Booth in Goal. The starting impact bench lineup was Jack Fahy, Cathal Dempsey and Paul Kinney.
The conditions were testing with heavy ground and relatively long grass making stylish football almost impossible.
The early minutes of the match presented Belmont with a couple of decent opportunities and St.James knew that Belmont had brought their 'A' game as the tackles went in fast and furiously.
St.James got a relatively easy goal early on and against the run of play which seemed to bode ominously but Belmont fought back and encapsulating the spirit of the day Mark Cloonan came up from defence to strike home the rebound from a corner kick to draw Belmont level.
St. James have a few very handy players and their second goal can only be described as a magnificent strike from way outside the box into the top right hand corner of the Belmont net leaving Conor with no chance.
During the match all of Belmont players were given the opportunity to demonstrate their prowess and everyone made significant crucial contributions.
Fiona McNulty , Cathal Dempsey and Jack Fahey all had their time as striker and each of them was denied goals by the quick witted St.James goalie. Belmont management eventually switched Jack into Midfield with Marcus going to the striker spot, a rotation which has served us well over the year and the positional change seems to catch out some of our opponent teams.
Conor Booth had his usual tremendous game in goal and so too did Brian Cuddy who had thrown his heart and soul into the first half running and working and tackling like a man possessed. Brian has developed hugely through the year both with his confidence on the ball and also his goalkeeping skills have become very noticeable.
John Mulcahy was a dynamo in the centre of midfield and cvered miles of ground tackling and running and covering back to help the defence at all times. Luke and Mark were as calm nder pressure as we have grown to expect and their work rate was phenomenal.
Marcus Boggan drew the match level at 2-2 with a cracking strikers goal which set the scene for a frantic last third of the match.
St.James were the ones who had the lucky break with their third goal coming from a corner and a lucky scrambled shot which slipped into the goal.
Towards the end of the game it was obvious that the Belmont players had exhausted themselves and we missed having the option to bring on PAtrick Sherwin as a a fresh pair of legs. Patrick had been injured after the semi final and was badly missed.
The Belmont team spirit is and was tremendous and with the urgings from a management team who got a tad too excited at times and a wildly enthusiastic bunch of supporters they pressesd and pressed looking for a way to get the equaliser but the final whistle just came too soon for our heroes.
The presentation of the trophy was done in a very sporting manner with the SDFL representative praising the boys for their tremendous work and providing an exhibition of hard work and commitment and thrilling football
All of the Kids were presented with finalist medals which we had acquired on the off chance that the result might not go our way… and by acclaim there was no individual performance that could be singled out for a man of the match award. Brian Cuddy was captain on his birthday.
So we can reflect on a satisfying campaign with 22 games played , we earned promotion to Division three , we were unbeaten in 14 of the 22 matches , winning 11, drawing 3 and losing 8.
An obvious point which was raised after the final was the our opponents train on a proper seven a side pitch with goals and were ultimately more experienced at utilising the space on the pitch.
Looking ahead to next year , The managers intend to carry on negotiations with Real Madrid and Manchester United but in the event that these negotiations are not successful are around to carry on ….
If anyone has a strong view please let it be known !!! The polling on the Blog site was pretty finely balanced all year.
We also need to find a ground to train on throughout the winter and to find a coach with the necessary experience to help develop the talent that we have.
Both Hugh and Liam would like to thank everyone for their support throughout the season and look forward to seeing you all soon.
Have a great Summer !
Liam and Hugh
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