U17s Celtic Challenge

Sunday 01.07.2018

County

Managed by Peter Mc Erlean and coached by Stephen Taggart, Cathal Donnelly, Stephen Mullan, Aidan Kelly and Stephen Ross, the Tyrone U17 Hurling side recently completed their season when they lost their All Ireland semi final to Antrim after a high scoring top quality match.

Captained by Fergal Donaghy this team grew in confidence and in quality as their season progressed.

The Group Stage saw mixed fortunes for the young Red Hands. An early 1-9 to 1-5 loss to Derry in which the Best and Fairest Award went to Sean Paul Mc Kernan was followed by a clash with Antrim. The Glensmen triumphed 3-13 to 2-11 with the Best and Fairest Award going to Cian Ferguson.

Following on from that the Red Hands defeated Fermanagh in Round 3 -Tyrone 4-17 Fermanagh 1-9 with the Best and Fairest Award once again going to Sean Paul Mc Kernan. Round 4 saw Tyrone at their strongest pushing an experienced Down side all the way before losing narrowly 2-16 to 1-18 in a game described by the Down management as a real “Houdini act”. Once again the Best and Fairest Award went to the highly talented  Cian Ferguson.

Round 5 was a disappointing outing which resulted in a  3-13 to 1-6 win for Armagh. This time out the Best and Fairest Award was picked up by Conor Mc Ginty.

The All Ireland Quarter Final saw Tyrone find their groove from early on and with Cian Ferguson in fine scoring form they defeated Roscommon  2-11  – 1-10. Top scorer on the day was Ferguson with 2-5.

Through to the semi final and growing in confidence Tyrone were beginning to fulfill their potential. Their game against Antrim was one of the matches of the year with both teams playing top class hurling throughout. Tyrone had opportunities to claim the win in normal time however they didn’t put the Antrim lads away and as often happens they paid the price. The game went to extra time before Antrim emerged as winners on a score-line of 2-27 to 3-15. Top scorer once again was Cian Ferguson with 2-10.

The season has seen much improvement and development for this group of young hurlers. With quality and skill in abundance they can surely look forward to future success in the county shirt. Well done to all the players, their coaches and management team on what has been a really worthwhile season.