By Daragh Coyle
Champions with two games to spare, that’s how incredible a season it has been for S&F United who confirmed they would be lifting the Mayo U13 Premier Division trophy after they beat near neighbours Swinford – one of only two teams who stood an outside chance of catching them.
The title-winning S&F United team who have been crowned Mayo U13 Premier Division champions.
The other, Westport United, ended up seven points adrift as a result of S&F’s victory, and Swinford a whopping thirteen, albeit with four games in hand.
Westport are the only team to have taken points off S&F this season, that draw supplemented by seven wins for the Moysiders in their opening eight league games. They are aiming for an invincible season and it’s hard to bet against them; their highlight of the season to date is surely an 8-0 defeat of Manulla at The Green.
If time spoke it would speak in rhymes, and in a unique connection between this U13 triumph and the club’s very first trophy won back in 1989/90, the top scorer on that U13 side that won Division 2 all of 33 years ago, John Jordan, is part of the coaching team that has overseen this latest success, along with manager Brian Wallace and Michael Costello.
“It was a tight league but they proved the tighter it got, the stronger they got,” Brian Wallace told the , his pride obvious. “We were hoping to compete and we proved that!”
Wallace pointed to a home win against Castlebar Celtic as another real highlight. Moyside rivals Ballina Town were also in their division. There is obviously high expectation going forward for this new generation but Wallace is keen just to see a continued progression and to keep them together.
“They’re all mates and they’re enjoying their football.
The presentation of the Premier Division trophy was made by former FAI President Pat Quigley at Green Road last Friday evening.