Donegal players proud to lift Buncrana Shield - Gary Wilson 

Gary Wilson says it’s important to always reference and remember the reason why the Buncrana Cup came into existence in the first place. 

Donegal U-16s battled back from a five-point deficit against Down to eventually run out 1-12 to 2-6 winners over Down on Saturday at the Scarvey to lift the Shield title. 

The Buncrana Cup came into existence back in 2000 as a way to commemorate victims of the Omagh bombing on August 15, 1998. 

Sadly, three of the victims of the atrocity were from Scoil Isogáin in Buncrana, Oran Doherty (8), Sean McLaughlin (11) and James Barker (13), along with two of their Spanish friends, Rocio Abad Ramos (23) and Fernando Blasco Baselga (12), who were on a cultural visit that day, on a cross-border excursion to Omagh.

The final of the prestigious tournament has always been played at Buncrana’s home pitch and this year’s competition marked its 22 Outing. 2021 didn’t happen due to the Covid pandemic.  

“It’s always nice to win silverware on home soil and particularly with the significance of Buncrana and the Omagh anniversary,” said Wilson who is part of the Donegal management team alongside Paddy Hegarty, Brian Roper, 

“And of course we talked about tactics and gameplans today but we also talked about how this was much bigger than just football. It was to remember 25 years ago and the poor souls that perished there”.   

In relation to the action and their early problems with a fast-paced Down, Wilson admits falling three points behind inside the first minute was hardly ideal. 

“We were on the back foot as early as 13 seconds - that’s what I clocked it at. Down had the ball in the back of the net and it felt like it might be uphill from there. But they showed real resilience to chip away.

“I said to Brian and Paddy at half-time that if you went in within one or two scores I felt we could still win it.

“We told them at half-time not to force matters on the restart. But what do young fellas do, they go and force it! And when they figured they could just chip it over from 30 or 40 yards, they just did that.

“The game management, for U-16s, was excellent and that really took over”.