BT Harps make their mark at National level

When BT Harps were knocked out of the SFAI Boys Under 14 National Cup back in October, this day seemed a long way off.

It was a kick in the teeth to be dispatched from the country’s flagship football competition at such an early stage, particularly for a club which traditionally excels at North Tipperary League level and always aspires to go deep in national competitions..

But no. Instead, Lenny McGuinness’ side invested themselves fully in the fallback trophy competition, the Europa League if you like, and now they’ve achieved something truly special.

On Saturday, this group of BT Harps players recorded an historic triumph over Wilton United of Cork. It was as sweet as victory as could be imagined, an achievement the club will savour for some time - and deservedly so.

The win was sealed courtesy of Seán Ryan’s 45th minute goal, a blazing diagonal effort struck from outside the area which evaded the Wilton keeper and sent the Templemore faithful into raptures.

They grinded out victory, delivering a stellar defensive display for the remaining 25 minutes and refusing to buckle despite being under enormous pressure. The sheer quality on display in that final episode, Wilton bursting to find an equaliser, Harps defending with their hearts on their sleeves, made for a thoroughly compelling finish.

It was mission accomplished, after seven long games and a whistle stop tour of the schoolboy football landscape. McGuinness’ voice is laced with pride, but he manages to compose himself just enough to outline the long campaign, the epic journey that brought them to this point.

“It was a long road to get there,” revealed the BT Harps manager.

“We played Regional United ‘B’, Breska Rovers, Lough Derg ‘B’ - overcame them 3-2 away, and then we beat a team from Dublin called Shankill, which was a big one. And then the next round after that was Shantraude of Limerick, whom we beat on penalties. And then the next game was against Leicester Celtic, and being honest they were probably our toughest opponents, they were a Dublin team and they pushed us hard. But we got over them, 1-0 after extra-time, and then went on to beat Knocknacarra of Galway 2-1 in the semi-final.”

The most striking thing about Harps in that final twenty minutes was their composure. As a team they were fearless, carefully playing the ball out from the back and knocking it intricately around the Evergreen turf. It would have been easy to resort to the long ball game at that point, to effectively park the bus and let Wilton come at them. But they didn’t. The players evidently trusted one another, and ultimately it paid dividends. Harps held out and secured a national title in the process.

“We try to play out from the back as much as we can,” McGuinness said.

“Sometimes we’ll go long, go direct, depending on the opposition, but certainly, playing it out from the back and keeping the ball on the ground - that would be our philosophy. But I suppose we’re cool under pressure, and I thought that was obvious last Saturday. Our defence in particular, they didn’t panic, particularly in those final few minutes, but it didn’t stop us from spraying the ball around either, and we got our reward in the end.”

What this will do for BT Harps as a club is hard to put into words, but Lenny captures the essence of what exactly this success means.

“It’s huge for the club,” McGuinness said.

“It’s great for BT Harps, it’s great for the town, it’s great for North Tipp football in general. It certainly puts us on the map and hopefully it will help encourage other kids to come out and play soccer and come through the underage ranks, from under-8s upwards. And the club is going well.

“We’ve well over 500 players at this moment, which are huge numbers. We have ‘A’ teams, we have ‘B’ teams, particularly around that eleven, twelve, thirteen age-group, we have a lot of players there. Now obviously, once you move past under-14, some players will leave and choose other sports and that, but we’re hoping that winning competitions like this one will help to attract others and motivate players to continue playing. It’s just great for the club, I can’t say it enough.”

BT Harps squad: Cathal Lillis; Ross Dorrity, Robert Myles, Daniel Mason, Pierce Deegan, Rory Ryan, Eoin O’Connell, Luke Duggan, Isaac Owens, Danny McGuinness, Dara Naughton, Makenzie Quinlan, Seán Ryan, Cillian Russell, Kyle O’Meara. Manager: Lenny McGuinness, Coaches: Paul Tuohy and John Mason.