O’Neill’s Derry SFC final: Sean O’Leary’s, Newbridge 1-12 Watty Graham’s, Glen (holders) 2-8
Newbridge spent two-and-a-half hours training in Celtic Park last weekend and it seemed that their delirious players and supporters would at least match that stay on the pitch after again becoming champions of Derry.
The green-and-white clad hordes were happy to sing and dance in the rain after stunning holders Glen, the reigning All-Ireland champions – but the time came to move the celebrations on, as goal-scorer Shane McGrogan explained: “We’ll party for a week and then see where it takes us.”
Their first destination might be hard to find for all but the hundreds who thronged around the full-forward and his team-mates, with the number 14 saying:
“It’s a small place, it’s literally a road, but we’re best friends – and to win the championship!”
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The Sean O’Leary’s had done so 10 times before, but mostly in the Forties, Fifties, and Sixties, and not since 1989, without even a senior final appearance for 33 years, making this achievement all the more magnificent.
Their captain Conor McAteer’s lengthy speech, spanning several sheets, spoke to the confidence within the club, and McGrogan insisted that he never doubted they would dethrone the Maghera men:
“Unreal. Everyone wrote us off and sure we were playing the All-Ireland champions. The bookies, we were some price – but we knew all week we had it.
“I never thought once this week that we would lose. We knew we had it in us. You train with these boys every week, you see the talent in that team – it’s unreal. People write us off because most of the time we didn’t perform, but once it clicks, it clicks.”
For most of this final, it did click for Newbridge, but they still had to show serious character after Glen’s first goal from Conleth McGuckian put the holders ahead as the game went into the final quarter.
Shane McGrogan was Newbridge’s goalscoring hero again, as he had been late in the semi-final, but his attitude to that score summed up the camaraderie in the side:
“I’m not taking the credit for that, it was all Conor McAteer, he’d done all the work, I just had to get to the end of it – couldn’t write it.”
The fact that Glen battled back was less of a surprise, but at least McGrogan was able to laugh off Ryan Dougan’s levelling goal close to the hour mark:
“We tried our best to throw it away at the end, but that was class. Fair play to Glen coming back, getting a goal with two minutes left, but we kept digging deep and it was deadly at the end, unbelievable.”
Unbelievable, incredible indeed. The identity of the man who scored the winning point – corner back Ciaran Brooks - might have made for an implausible film script, but against McGrogan insisted he truly believed: “Brooksy, he took it well. Whoever’s in that position, we trust them to score.”
The confidence of youth indeed.
Amazingly, Newbridge won without their best player, Derry defender Paudie McGrogan, although despite his cruciate ligament injury he metaphorically kicked every ball on the sideline alongside the management of Gary Hetherington and Kevin Brady.
The young guys on the pitch carried out their gameplan superbly, and there may well be much more to come from Newbridge, as McGrogan commented:
“We’re a young team. I’m nearly one of the oldest and I’m 23. There are a lot of young boys coming through and everyone put their shoulder to the wheel.”
All the hard work had paid off.
“It’s a long time coming,” said McGrogan, with a happy smile.
Newbridge were a long time leaving Celtic Park, but these memories will never go away.
