| Fourth International Umbro Galway Cup |
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| Written by Staff Reporter | |
| Wednesday, 13 August 2008 | |
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The top U15 Elite teams in the fourth International Umbro Galway Cup met in the Finches cup final on Saturday afternoon with Leicester City coming out as winners against the FAI Development squad at the Drom Soccer Park by 2-0. Over 2,000 people participated in this year's tournament and a further 10,000 attended the Drom Soccer Park soccer grounds to capture the action during the week.  Leicester City under-15. There wasn't much between the sides in the final until five minutes before the break. The FAI squad had lost striker Daniel Purdy by that stage to injury and his loss – together with the absence of another front-man David Murphy – meant they were robbed of two key attackers. Miles and Joyce grabbed the goals for Leicester in a three-minute spell as half-time approached. The week's work proved a vital learning experience for the FAI squad. All of the players were drawn from the FAI's Emerging Talent centres from around Ireland and got the opportunity to hone their skills against some of the best academy teams from English clubs. Former Republic of Ireland International Ray Houghton, who was recently appointed as an FAI Ambassador, was in attendance at finals day in Galway and praised the organisers of the Umbro Galway Cup for running such a fantastic tournament. "The Umbro Galway Cup international tournament enables young home-based and overseas players to learn new skills, connect with great football clubs and develop soccer techniques within a professional environment," he said. "It was great to see the Ireland emerging talent team perform so well at this week's Umbro Galway Cup. The quality of competition was very high and they more than held their own over the week's matches." The U-17 final, sponsored by Ford Motorpark, produced one of the most memorable encounters in the short history of the Umbro Galway Cup. It ended up being a club derby as it was contested by two Salthill Devon teams, SDFC91 and SDFC92. Brian Gaffney put the older Salthill Devon in front and he added a second for '91 side after the break. However, the '92 side rallied and after Joe Shaughnessy scored what seemed little more than a consolation goal, they snatched a dramatic equaliser in the dying seconds when Shaughnessy again found the target to force the tie to penalties with the '92 side winning it with the final kick from man-of-the-match Daryl Horgan. Results
Ford Motorpark UNDER-17 BOYS
Finches UNDER-15 BOYS (ELITE)
Nexus UNDER-15 BOYS (CLUB)
Supermacs UNDER-14 BOYS
Smyths Toys UNDER-13 BOYS (ACADEMY)
Irish Rail UNDER-13 BOYS (CLUB)
Anglo Irish Bank UNDER-17 GIRLS (CLUB) |
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