Posted online: Jan 27th, 2010

Carrowmena Football Club are celebrating after causing something of an upset to take the Charlie O’Donnell memorial cup at Cockhill last week.

The Tremone side defeated the mighty Redcastle United 5-3 in the final of the Futsol tournament after overcoming the challenge of Culdaff in the semi-finals earlier that evening.

Club treasurer Martin McDermott is understandably thrilled with the club’s second trophy in the space of 9 months after they were crowned Fr O’Gara Cup winners at the end of last season.

But he joked that the club’s latest success has created  a logistical headache for their committee.

“It’s another sought after piece of silverware after we won our first ever cup in the Fr O’Gara last year,” he said.

“We knew last year that the team would have to do a lot of building but we didn’t expect  that to include building a trophy cabinet!

“The local community and the committee are grateful to the players and Raymond Dougal and John McLaughlin for putting the club on the map and long may it continue.”

Carrowmena went into the last four of the competition as the only representatives from the First Division, but McDermott admits that they didn’t come to Cockhill to simply make up the numbers.

“We went into the competition aiming to win, we had belief in our ability and were quietly confident that we could do it.

“We are blessed with some very talented players and they prepared very well at the  resource centre in Greencastle.

“Raymond prepares for games meticulously, he goes about his business without making a big fuss and sets out his stall very well. We learned from training that the use of substitutes was particularly important and the team used that to great effect in the final.”

As well as their cup success, Carrowmena are currently flying high at the top of the First Division table and McDermott says there is a real buzz around the club at the moment.

“It’s a great period for the club, we are attracting a big support at our games and the team are playing a good brand of attacking football. We’re looking forward to going into the regional stages of the competition now, the players are playing with a lot of confidence and they go into every game believing they can win.”