A FIRST CLASS ACHIEVEMENT

Kieran’s YCOB complete rise to top tier

IT takes a good team to win the league, and a brilliant one to repeat it year after year.

So, take a bow, Banbridge YCOB who sealed the Division Two title at the weekend – their third in a row, all in different tiers.

Twelve months ago they were winning Division Three, adding it to the Division Four crown they secured the season before.

Not bad for a club formed in 2013. Player-manager Kieran Mccourt can now look forward to a crack at Division One come August and he can’t wait.

He told Match On Tuesday: “Our target this season was to win the league so we’re delighted to have achieved that.

“Three titles in a row is a brilliant feeling and it’s all down to hard work.

“Most of the team have been here throughout all three league titles so we haven’t had much upheaval along the way.

“There’s a good togetherness in the group, they’re all working really hard for each other and fighting for everything.

“The character they’ve shown has been first class – in the past couple of weeks when things have gone against them they’ve kept going and they’ve got their reward for that.

“There’s a real winning mentality in this team as you can see from three promotions in a row.

“Hopefully we can maintain that in Division One next season and go up there and be competitive.

“Any time we’ve played a first division side in recent seasons we’ve done well. We beat Hill Street in the Kennedy Cup for example, so we know what we’re capable of. We’ll look to add one or two players of quality in certain areas but, for the most part, we want to keep this side together.

“A couple of players are going, for example Ryan Evans who is stepping aside, and we will need to replace those.

“But they will have to be the right players with the right character to come in and help take us to the next level.”

Division Two was one of the leagues most difficult to predict throughout the season.

Derryhirk United, buoyed by their Foster Cup triumph, ended up pushing the Old Boys hardest and could finish a point behind if they win their final game.

For a time, though, West End Hibs led the way before Goodyear took over with Ballymacash YM scoring a hatful and quality and unpredictability running right through the league.

And to emerge as the best of that bunch makes the

YCOB triumph even sweeter.

Mccourt added: “Ballymacash came up with us last season and they’re a good outfit.

“You have West End Hibs in there and one or two others who have had good seasons, the likes of Derryhirk.

“We managed to go on a good run after Christmas and that really made the difference.”