On Saturday 19th May Killicomaine Under 14 Hockey team went to the Antrim Forum to play in a 6-a-side tournament. We entered two teams into two different groups in the tournament.
:: :: ::
The A team's first match was against last years winners and we knew this was going two be a tough match. The first match didn't start off too well as most of our team were still asleep! Added to this problem was the fact that most of our team hadn't played hockey in a few months! Five minutes into the match our captain Chris Burns was hit on the back of the leg and was badly injured being unable to play. Despite this our team held strong and our makeshift goalkeeper Ethan Rathore kept many goals out. Unfortunately Kilkeel won 4-0 and our morale went down.
:: :: ::
We picked ourselves up for the next match knowing that we could still qualify. In this match we played Grovenor B's and we played far better. We won 3-0 with Neale Spence and Neil Gilmore scoring the goals.
:: :: ::
In our final group game we played Antrim B youths and our team played exceptionably well and won 6-0 with the other team unable to get the ball out of their own half.

We were now in the semi-finals of the tournament where we played Grovenor A's. We knew this would be a tight match and we went out to win. It was a very dramatic game with both teams having plenty of chances to score. It was 0-0 with two minutes left to go when Neil Gilmore swept the ball across the semi-circle to the unmarked Daniel Coulter who scored a spectacular goal past the keeper. Exceptional defending by Luke Magill also helped contribute to our 1-0 win. The boys were ecstatic that we were now through to the final and it wasn't hard to guess who we would play. Yes it was Kilkeel and we knew it would take a special performance to have a chance of winning.
:: :: ::
The final started and both teams stared off strongly with our team slightly more in control. Suddenly two strikers burst through our defence scoring in the left hand corner. Our team was shocked but spirits were still high. We went out from the hit off hungry for a goal. We saw our chance when we won a short corner. Stephen Aiken played a swift ball out to Neale Spence who smacked the ball into the back of the net. The whole team was thrilled that the hard work had paid off. We went for the tactic of all out attack and unfortunately Kilkeel scored on the counter attack. Our heads dropped and Kilkeel scored again before the end of the match. The final score was 3-1 and we were annoyed that we didn't win the tournament.

The whole team received runners up medals, which wasn't so bad. Goal scorers were Neale Spence-5, Neil Gilmore-3, Aaron Martin-2 and Daniel Coulter-1. The team were proud of their overall performance and thoroughly enjoyed the trip. On behalf of the team we would like to thank Mrs Murphy on a great trip.
:: :: ::
By Chris Burns
And
Stephen Aiken