Kells / Blackwater face Derry City in big Foyle Cup game this evening
Kells / Blackwater u-15 players have made an impact at the prestigious O'Neills Foyle Cup in Derry this week and face a big match at 5pm this evening against Derry City.
The popular tournament kicked-off this week and so far Kells / Blackwater have fared well with an 11-0 victory against Beann Mhadaghainn from Blefast in their first outing.
They followed that with a 2-0 victory against east Donegal and then, in a showdown for top of the group, were edged out by Hearts from Scotland who won 2-0.
Second place got them through to the knock-out phase of the main competition where they defeated Maiden City 1-0 this morning and now face Derry City this evening.
If they win that game they will face the winner of Hearts v Finn Harps and if they lose they will play the loser of Hearts v Finn Harps - whichever it is, that game will be tomorrow.
The O’Neills Foyle Cup has set the benchmark for youth tournaments, drawing teams from dozens of clubs across Northern Ireland, the UK, Europe, the US and the Republic of Ireland as well as being the most heavily scouted footballing event around.
Derry and the surrounding area this week welcomed a total of 424 teams to this year’s event which kicked off on Monday.
The u-15 team from Kells/Blackwater is experiencing the O’Neills Foyle Cup for the first time and have been very much looking forward to it according to coach Adrian Corcoran.
“We have known about the O’Neills Foyle Cup for the last number of years and tried to compete so this year we are able to," he commented.
“I look after the 2004s, we’ll be bringing a party of players, parents and coaches and staying at the White Horse Hotel. We’ll be competing against teams we’d never get to play against normally so it will be great to be up against them.
“We’ve been successful in our own area, winning quite a bit of silverware, so we hope to do well in Derry.
"We’ve got a very strong panel, a good mix of lads who are very keen to play. We’ve been over to the UK a couple of times but we’ve never played against any teams in the North or Scotland.
“Everything has been top notch. The hotel has everything down to a tee, giving us pool times, meal times, checking what we want to eat.
"Michael Hutton, the organiser, has been very helpful, I can just pick up the phone or send him an email and he answers me straight back," he added.
The Kells team were also among the estimated 6,000 participants in Tuesday’s opening parade which is one of the main highlights of the week long tournament.
Kieran Kennedy, Managing Director of O’Neills Irish International Sports Company Ltd, said, “As a local company based in the North West, employing over 900 people on the island of Ireland, O’Neills are proud title sponsors of this home-grown tournament which attracts hundreds of teams from across the world.
“With approximately 1,550 matches being played on 45 pitches at 35 different venues over the six days of this internationally renowned football festival, we have no doubt this year’s event will be another massive success,” he added.
OTHER INFO
Matches are played in the Derry City and Strabane District, as well as Causeway Coast and Glens Borough and Donegal County Council areas which are also famed as international visitor destinations.