Lewis McCaughan balances Finn Harps and Abbey VS duties ahead of MacRory Cup final

For most players facing a MacRory Cup final this weekend, the key task would be about keeping the body rested, but that is not the case for the Abbey Vocational School’s goalkeeper Lewis McCaughan.  

This Sunday will be the first time a Donegal side will face a MacRory Cup final since 1961 and it would largely be expected that team manager Stuart McFadden would almost have the majority of his players under house arrest until the weekend rolls around.  

But McCaughan is one of the few players on the starting 15 who juggles his successful underage GAA life with life between the sticks at Finn Harps.  

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Last year’s sub-county minor goalkeeper currently serves as the goalkeeper for Russell Porter’s U-20 side with games and preparation coming at his side thick and fast before the season begins.  

Playing at a high level in both sports, no doubt takes its toll in this day and age, on many young sportsmen, but McCaughan seems to be taking it all in his stride.  

“I was up training with the Finn Harps’ senior squad the last two weeks there, so now I’m back down with the U-20s,” he said.  

“I was also asked to go up to the Donegal U-20s but they asked me after I signed for Finn Harps so I couldn’t go. I would be training with Harps at least three days a week, it can be tough trying to balance it all at times but it’s enjoyable.”  

Such work will see McCaughan face Coleraine on Friday for Harps, before entering into the MacRory Cup on Sunday with the Abbey Vocational School, with the possibility of playing another match against Larne, all the while having played another Harps U-20 match against Ballinamallard earlier this week.  

Ulster finals are not alien to him either having featured between the sticks in Four Masters’ last two Ulster minor club finals over the past two seasons, while he’s also played as the number 1 in the Abbey Vocational School’s historic last McLarnon Cup final last year.  

That was also a month before he put in a Man of the Match performance for his school which defeated Loreto Community School, Milford in the Tom Ticher Ulster Junior Soccer Schools Final in Letterkenny.  

“You can be a bit nervous for this final on Sunday to be fair, but it’s something we’re all looking forward to,” McCaughan said.  

“We would’ve lost a lot of Ulster finals before we went into the McLarnon Cup last year, now we’re in the MacRory final . . . it’s just funny how that goes.  

“I think the fact that we are all well used to playing these big games together and we all know how to play together that helps. We’ve been training hard the last few weeks in getting ready, and we even got to train in Celtic Park recently.  

“We’ve watched St Pat’s Maghera’s matches; they have a few Derry players who are good but I think we are well capable for them. It’s just going to be about who performs on the day really.”