Camarader win, and q this year’s finally give game to r

to sit at Windsor Park and for people to know there’s been a lot of effort and work put in on the Junior football front, it pleases me no end.”

Looking back over the tournament, Mcconkey believes there were a few pivotal moments when he allowed himself to think that maybe, just maybe, Northern Ireland’s name was on the cup.

“When we came off the pitch after the Isle of Man game, it was 4-0 and with that penalty save, and after the first game where we came back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with a Scotland team who you knew had been billed as favourites on their own patch, and with the quality of our goals which were really excellent, that really gave us a boost and we thought anything is possible now,” said the retired forwere mer PE teacher.

“But we needed to make sure there was no complacency and after the second game we knew if we executed our gameplan against the Republic then we were in with a great chance.”

As a candidate to lead the junior international squad, the IFA could scarcely have settled on a more suitably qualified manager than Mcconkey.

He played at, and enjoyed considerable success, at all three levels of football in Northern Ireland, winning the

Junior Cup as a youngster with his hometown club Lisbellaw United in 1978, then landing the Intermediate Cup and the B Division with Ballyclare Comrades before a distintrophy)