Victorious 2004 and 2006 teams pose together after their Foyle Cup successes
Glentoran Academy have enjoyed their fair share of success in recent years at the Foyle Cup, in 2014 our 2001 team landed the Academy's first Foyle Cup since the U18 success of 2006 ending a dry spell at the prestigious competition. In 2014 our 2000 squad returned to Belfast with the cup having fallen at the Semi Final stage in the two previous seasons to Hearts and Sheffield United respectively. Also in 2014 our magnificent 2004 squad landed their first Foyle Cup win which they duly followed up by landing the 2015 trophy in fine style last summer.
For the Foyle Cup of 2016 we dispatched three excellent teams to the North West in search of more Foyle Cup Silverware and more importantly, more lifelong memories for the young players in what is a fantastic week of fun and team bonding that is unsurpassed in our country.
Our 2007 hopefuls entered the Under 9 tournament while our 2006 team competed in the u10 section and our 2004 went seeking three in a row in the under 12 section.
The group stages were goal laden for our teams with the Glens scoring an incredible 90 goals across 14 games in the three age groups suffering only one group stage defeat when our 2007 fell to the eventual cup runners up Oxford FC.
As a result of the almost impeccable group stage showing all three teams emerged into the Foyle Cup section of the tournament – the top 8 teams at each age group go into the cup with the rest filtering into supplementary competitions.
In the Quarter Finals our 2007 faced home town club Maiden City Academy and unfortunately after an epic encounter lost 1-0, the lads stumbled again losing to Coleraine to eventually end up in a play-off for 7th/8th place in the main cup competition. This time the boys returned to their winning ways as they secured a very creditable 7th place finish in their first ever Foyle Cup beating Ballymoor 4-3 on penalties.
2007 Foyle Cup Team
In the 2006 Quarter Final Marty Murphy’s charges met Ilistrin, who had also emerged impressively from their group – this was to prove a much tighter affair for the lads than they had met in their group as they eventually seen off the challenge of their opponents with a fantastic goal from Reece Lyttle.
The ‘Tie of the Round’ however in the Quarter Finals was undoubtedly our 2004 against Sheffield United, a game that received coverage in the following day's Belfast Telegraph as Northern Ireland’s best took on the full time professional Academy outfit from the famous Yorkshire club. This Glentoran side however would not be intimidated by their big name opponents and this age group, as reported on Glentoran.com before, boast plenty of International talent themselves and are no strangers to going the distance in cup competitions having landed their first NIBFA Cup win back in May.
The Glens showed their class as they overcame the Blades with a fine 3-1 win to march onto the Semi-Final.
2004's celebrate their famous win over Sheffield Utd
Glentoran 2004's victory and move towards a historic third consecutive Foyle Cup caught the attention of the Belfast Telegraph
Friday 22nd of July 2016 is a day that our 2006 team won’t forget in a hurry as they woke up early in the morning for their team breakfast and some inspiring words from their coaches before heading off to their Semi-Final clash with Dungannon.
The Glens had beaten Dungannon 4-0 en-route to the Craigavon Cup Final earlier in the summer but the boys were under no illusions that this would be anything other than a very difficult game against one of the traditional powerhouses of youth football in Northern Ireland.
This game proved to be much tighter as the Glens ran out 4-2 winners with Jay Harvey the star of the show bagging a brace and sending his troops into the final.
The boys didn’t have long to wait to play in their first Foyle Cup final as there was just time for some rest and refuelling before heading off to their early afternoon final against Strabane outfit Sion Swifts. With quality such as 8 goal Aodhan Doherty in the ranks alongside the consistently supreme Colby Smith and Recce Lyttle the Glens coaches could be confident that the boys would have a good chance if they could manage their nerves.
If the Glens players were nervous they showed no signs of it as they raced into a 3-0 lead before half time with Harry Dorman, Colby Smith and Jay Harvey scoring the goals to send Glentoran on their way to a 3-1 win and the right to be called Foyle Cup Champions 2016!
2006 Team after their Foyle Cup Final
For our 2004 on the same day they came up against a familiar foe in the Semi-Final as they met the same opponents they had beat at this stage last year in Ballinamallard. Glentoran ran out 2-0 winners on the day with Captain Fantastic Charlie Lindsay and the outstanding Matthew Carson getting the goals. The Glens had a bit longer to wait for their Final as they were to run out against Donegal Schools at the Brandywell on Saturday afternoon – meaning that Friday belonged to the 2006 and their fantastic success which was highlited on the UTV news that evening!
So onto the Brandywell for the culmination of a long, hard, but memorable week for Glentoran and a 2004 final against Donegal Schools – Donegal are well renowned for being exceptionally strong across the board at the Foyle Cup each year and frequently land final appearances and Cup wins – they were the opponents for our 2000 team in 2014 having knocked out Celtic on the way to the final so Jason Lindsay, knowing the calibre of opposition, ensured his boys were focussed for one final push.
Finals are often tight and tense affairs that require guts and dedication and some individual brilliance to make the difference and with Glentoran going for three in a row there was no way the boys would relinquish their strangle hold on the competition easily as they fought for every ball and deservedly kept their clean sheet – now just for that moment of brilliance…
When you have so much quality in your team you can always rely on one of them to pull something out of the fire, be it goalscorer extraordinaire Marshall, the devastating skills of Donaghy or Wightman or the vision and prowess of Lindsay but this time it was Matthew Carson who stepped up to fire in a wonderful goal to give the Glens the 1-0 win and their third Foyle Cup in a row.
Three in a row for the 2004s!
Tournament organisers confirmed afterwards that only Glasgow Celtic have ever achieved the feat of winning three Foyle Cups in a row – before now! Not bad company to be in and who would bet against them making it four next year?
I am sure the whole Glentoran Family will join us in congratulating all our players from all three teams and paying a special thanks to their coaches who have been great role models all week for the boys and of course to the players parents who make these trips possible.
Another proud week in the life of Glentoran Academy!