Toals Bookmakers Steel & Sons Cup final: Newington 1 Linfield Swifts 0
IT was the kind of team performance players and management dream about. At Seaview on Christmas morning, Newington lived the dream, producing an epic display of skill, bravery and composure to land their second Steel & Sons Cup in five years.
Twenty-year-old winger Aodhán Gillen was the toast of north Belfast after he grabbed the only goal of the final in the 59th minute.
Linfield Swifts, who defeated Newington in the 2019 showpiece decider, can have no complaints with the outcome.
Davy Dorrian’s young charges were out-played for the vast majority of Saturday’s intriguing final and never really threatened to get back on level terms.
Afterwards, Gillen admitted there was a certain amount of fortune about his winning goal – but there was nothing fortuitous about Newington’s victory.
“It was surreal,” said Newington’s goal hero.
“When I scored I didn’t know what to do. I just ran straight to the fans.”
Robbie McVarnock, who attacked Linfield down the right side from start to finish of Saturday’s final, slid the ball into Gillen’s path and with everyone expecting the young winger to pull the ball back, his mis-hit shot squirmed in at the near post and completely fooled Swifts keeper David Walsh.
“Robbie won the ball and put it through to me and I just ran behind the defenders,” Gillen said.
“I actually went to cross it and lucky enough it went in. The keeper thought I was crossing it.
“I scored in many finals but this one tops the lot. This team can achieve so much – we’re going for the Premier Intermediate League and the Intermediate Cup. We want to go as far as we can.”
Once inspirational captain Richard Gowdy raised the coveted silverware at pitch-side, the Newington players and management team were immediately doused in champagne.
They first reached the Holy Grail in 2017 under the guiding hand of Conor Crossan. Still involved in the backroom team, the Steel Cup remains the club’s number one objective every season.
Throughout those five seasons, Newington have evolved from being a dogged, resilient team to one that plays all-out attack.
McVarnock won the Steel Cup final man-of-the-match award but there were any number of Newington players who would have been equally worthy recipients as the team’s all-action right back.
At left-back, Jack O’Reilly never put a foot wrong and spent more time in the opposition’s half of the field than his own.
Sweeper Matthew Gorman, central midfielders Richard Gowdy and Patrick Downey and strike pair Gary Warwick and Dan White also had outstanding games.
On a day where they demanded the absolute best from themselves, each Newington player produced an eight-out-of-10 performance or above.
Andrew Thomas Clarke spurned arguably Linfield’s best chance of the game on 16 minutes, firing over Marc Maybin’s crossbar after brilliant approach play down the right flank from Callum Marshall and Adam Carroll.
At the other end, Dan White’s penetrating runs were causing the Swifts back-line all sorts of problems while the dangerous Conal Burns held his head in his hands after missing a great chance just before the interval.
But it never effected Newington’s composure. In the second half, they were relentless in pursuit of the cup with Linfield struggling to get out of their own half of the field.
The pressure finally told just before the hour mark when Gillen netted in what proved to be the winner.
“The boys showed in the semi-final and the final that they have the mentality to deal with the big occasion,” said first team coach Sean Adams.
“They never panicked and played it out from the back. I thought we were excellent from start to finish. There were no weak links in the team and the fact we didn’t make a sub told you that.
“Another couple of goals and you’d be talking to close to the perfect performance for a cup final, and we created other chances too.”
Saturday's final proved Davy Dorrian's last game in charge of Linfield Swifts after over five years in charge.
"It's been a hard year," said Dorrian. "We're playing in an U20 league and the players we have are just a wee bit too young.
"Whenever you take a reserve team job, you think your job is to get players in the first team, but I don't think that's the case any more. Your job is to get players to another level... I think it's hard for the players because the manager will say to them: 'Don't worry about results, care about your performance and your own development."
But Christmas Day belonged to Newington. Steel & Sons champions again - and a cup final performance they could only dream about.
Newington: M Maybin, R McVarnock, J Reilly, M Gorman, K Bradley, R Gowdy, C Burns, G Warwick, P Downey, A Gillen, D White
Linfield Swifts: D Walsh, E McCoubrey (J Hastings 88), C Murray, J Briggs, K Reid, D McCann (G Cakaj 70), A Carroll, J Archer, C Marshall, AT Clarke, J Montgomery (T McFarlane 70)
Referee: M Milligan
