THAT WAS SOME FEAT

Treamornor praises his knackered boys for showing the guts to keep going

AMID the wild celebrations, the shooting sprays of champagne and the impromptu sing-songs, Queen’s anthem reverberated around the National Stadium.

There’s nothing unusual about a victorious team appropriating We Are The Champions, of course, it’s played to death at this time of the year at the business end of the season when the trophies are handed out.

But for Star, the line about ‘fighting ‘til the end’ is particularly resonant with Paul Trainor’s men basing so much of this season’s success – a league, Border and Intermediate Cup treble no less – on a gusty will to win which has allowed them to repeatedly drag themselves across the finishing line when the cause looks lost and time is running out.

And just like their Border Cup triumph, forged on the back of an injury-time winner in the semi against Rosemount and an injurytime equaliser in the final against Ballynahinch Olympic, it was the late, late show again last Thursday as full-back Paul Prigent came off the bench to break Queen’s University hearts with the only goal of the game in added time.

“It’s unreal because they were out on their feet there,” said Trainor.

“We’d a couple of good chances in the first half I thought, I’m not saying we dominated the first half but we had a couple of chances and we had a penalty claim and the boys are adamant, they thought they should have got a penalty, though I was too far away from it to comment on it.

“But second half, we knew Queen’s were going to come after us and with us playing Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and they have had a fortnight’s rest over the last couple of weeks, they were fresher and they did come at us big time in the second half.

“Big [Shane] Harrison made a great save and we were carrying five or six injuries, [Kevin] Trainor had to come off and [Paul] Prigent comes on, we made a slight adjustment because we took a lot of balls coming down their right hand side, but here, it paid off, the cross came in and he stuck it away.”

And on Star’s penchant for a late goal, he added: “It’s unreal, they just never know when they are beat.”

Watching Trainor drinking it all in as the players danced around the winners’ podium in jubilation, it was easy to detect a sense of immense pride in his club’s achievements.

An Ardoyne man born and bred, this is the pinnacle of his managerial career.

“Leading my local side out at the National Stadium, it’s unreal,” he said.

“These are things kids dream of and I’m still a big kid. This is the biggest thing we’ve won, most definitely, but I want that other wee bugger now [the Steel Cup].

“These kids didn’t realise how big this cup is, yes the Steel Cup gets all the hype with the Christmas thing, down at Seaview and everything, but this is better and harder to win, and we’ve played away from home all season to win this, so it’s some achievement.”