The Offaly Finals of the EA Sports FAI Schools 5 A Side competition for Primary Schools took place in Tullamore Town’s Leah Victoria Park on 23April reports Luke Hardy, FAI Regional Development Officer:
13 Primary Schools from across Offaly entered this year’s competition with a record number of 33 teams competing for the chance to be crowned County Champions:
There are five different sections in this hugely popular competition, three for boys and two for girls, each based on the number of pupils in 4th, 5th and 6th classes: This allows similarly sized schools to compete against each other with separate sections for small, medium and large schools:
Competing in the final of the ‘A’ Boy’s Section were St Broghans NS, Bracknagh and Geashill NS after both teams topped their groups: St Broghans NS who reached the All Ireland Finals last year ran out 2/1 winners in the hotly contested final:
Two teams from St Brendan’s PS, Birr competed in the finals of the ‘B’ Boys section with the winning team now progressing to the Mid Leinster Finals on 29th April in Portlaoise to compete against the County winners from Laois, Kildare and Kilkenny:
St Patricks BNS from Portarlington emerged top of the Boy’s ‘C’ Section after narrowly beating Scoil Bhride, Tullamore:
Geashill NS won out in the Girl’s ‘A’ Section remaining unbeaten in their four group games scoring an incredible 13 goals and conceding none: In the final they defeated Gaelscoil An Eiscir Riada of Cloncollig Tullamore however after finishing runners up will represent Offaly in the Mid Leinster Finals in the Girl’s ‘B’ Section:
The winning teams from each group will go on to represent Offaly in the Mid Leinster Finals in Portlaoise on 29th April:
Organiser Luke Hardy (FAI Development Officer for Offaly and Laois) would like to thank the Transition Year Students from Colaiste Choilm for refereeing the competition and the teachers and playersfor their help in making this year’s Offaly EA Sports finals such a success:
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Photographs available upon request
