Teenager shines in final

The youngster, who was given his first start for the Drumahoe club, stole the show and showed great composure to slot home the crucial winning spot-kick that secured the Craig Memorial Cup, on Monday.

With the likes of Thomas McBride and Neil Harkin both missing the teenager took to the big occasion like a duck to water and now that he has got the taste for it, he wants more of it.

“I definitively want to try and keep my place in the team and then hopefully if I progress over to England or somewhere like there,” explained the 16-year-old.

“Things are going good at the minute, so hopefully I can keep playing the way I’m playing and we’ll see what happens.

“It has always been my main aim to try and play football across the water, from whenever I was younger I was always looking to get across the water; firstly I have to get my GCSE’s over and if I don’t get over this year, then I’ll just keep playing here and enjoying my time at ’Stute and someday I’ll hopefully get across.”

The St Columb’s College student, was pleased to have fired home the winning spot-kick and also banishing memories of his last penalty for the school team.

“I just enjoyed the whole match and it was great to be with the first team, then to go and play like that, I was so happy with myself and then to get the winning penalty as well, the boys let me hit the last penalty.

“The last penalty I hit, was for my school team and I missed but I just had to get over it and I thought to myself that there was no pressure on me and I just stuck it into the net and we won the cup.”

This weekend the Drumahoe club play their fourth North West derby of the season against Limavady United and the Northern Ireland Under 17 international knows that it is another big game for him and his team-mates.

“Hopefully I’ll be in the squad and maybe even start the game and more importantly the team and myself put in a similar performance, which will hopefully gets us another victory,” concluded the Manchester United supporter.