Rossglass County FC

Rossglass County have applied for a funding grant from the Aviva Community Fund to host a tournament for 5 and 6 year olds while raising money for one special little boy! And we need your help. We need votes from the public to get us through to the final judging round.

Please vote for our project. Your support is much appreciated. https://community-fund.aviva.co.uk/voting/project/view/4-1046

The idea for the tournament came from one of our committee members and club treasurer, Amy Farrand, whose husband Joe has played for Rossglass since he was a small boy. Amy and Joe have a nephew, Matthew who was born 10 weeks prematurely and as a result suffers from cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy is a terrible neurological condition that affects a child’s movement, motor skills and movement. Currently there is no cure but there are various treatment options that can help children like Matthew enjoy a better quality of life.

Matthew is 5 years old and currently in a wheelchair.  He has just started primary 1. He is a lovely, happy child with a great smile (check out pictures with his mum and best friend) and extremely popular with not just his classmates but the other pupils in his school. He doesn’t let his disability get in the way of enjoying life but for Matthew’s parents their wish is that he can eventually leave his wheelchair behind him and walk unaided.

Recently Matthew and his parents travelled to Alder Hay Children’s Hospital in Liverpool so he could undergo Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR) surgery to improve his function and mobility.

However Matthew needs more treatment and physiotherapy and as a community club we would like to support him and his family by providing financial aid to help continue his treatment and visits to Alder Hay.

Matthew is a big fan of football and Rossglass County and has watched his uncle play many times. We thought the best way we could help Matthew is to bring together children of his age to participate and celebrate in our Community Football Tournament. To run a tournament of this size with 24 teams, just to cover costs we would have to charge a huge entrance fee for each team. A grant from the Aviva Community fund would ensure we could put on the best event possible and allow each team invited to participate.

The format of the tournament would ensure each team would get to a semi-final, we would have 6 trophies up for grabs and every child would go home with a medal, memento and great memories from the day. More importantly it will bring our rural community together to share in a young boy’s love of football and perhaps help him to walk unaided one day, which would be the best gift we could give him and his family.

Please vote for this project. Your support is much appreciated. Vote here https://community-fund.aviva.co.uk/voting/project/view/4-1046

Over 40 players, coaches, parents and friends of Rossglass took part in our hugely popular Last Man Standing competition. It only took 4 weeks to get down to the last two!

Manchester United’s recent run of bad form over those 4 weeks reduced the field dramatically and yesterday we were left with two finalists Simon McGarry and Cormac “Bouffant” McLaughlin. As we were going into the International break it was suggested that the two guys might want to share the prize money or risk losing it all. Very sportingly both men agreed and will share the winning pot. The club will throw in a couple of our sports bags too.

This gesture will allow the club to set up a new competition after the International break. We hope you enjoyed it and will join again for a bit of fun.

Darren Teggart has stepped down as coach of the seconds. The club would like to thank him for his dedication and hard work. He has worked tirelessly over the past two years to improve the second squad. However, Darren won’t be going too far from the team as he still intends to pull on his boots and play. He will also be continuing in his role as under 17 coach.

The new coach of the seconds is Daniel McGarrity, currently with the under 10s and the whole club wishes him the best of luck in his new role. Danny took the reigns on Saturday at home to Valley Rangers in the Newcastle & District Division 11. Great things are expected of McGarrity as he has some pedigree at this level having worked with Philip Campbell a few years back going unbeaten for an entire season.

However, McGarrity must have left the field this week scratching what few hairs he has left on his head as Rossglass who were 3-1 up at halftime somehow conspired to lose the game 4-3!

Rossglass fell behind early in this game to a soft goal. A long ball split the County defence and the Ranger’s centre-forward raced through to coolly slot home past Cookie McKinney in nets. Undeterred County fought back with new signing Eoin McEvoy impressing and bossing the midfield. The county team grew in confidence and their dominance finally paid off.  County’s centre-forward was in scintillating form. The gangly Marc Burke made goal scoring look easy – three times he was put through, one on one with the goalkeeper and three times he put the ball in the net. A hat-trick for young Burke, County were cruising and you just couldn’t see them losing this game.

However, it was a different story in the second half. Whether county thought the game was in the bag and complacency set in, but within minutes of the re-start, Valley Rangers were back in the game. A long ball to the back post went over the head of the County keeper finding an unmarked player who had the simple job of tapping the ball home. Confidence seemed to drain from the County players and in an effort to rejuvenate the midfield McGarrity made a number of substitutions. Chris Hamilton was replaced with Ryan Kearney who had a half valley fly narrowly over the bar, McEvoy had a few long-range efforts that unfortunately didn’t trouble the keeper and Burke had a penalty shout denied when he was barged over in the box. But apart from this, it was all Rangers in the second half and their pressure paid off, not only equalising but taking the lead with all the goals coming down the right-hand side. McGarrity will be praying that Paul McGarry missing due to an unfortunate incident in a local church last Friday will be back next week at left back for County.

A disappointing start to McGarrity’s reign, he’ll be hoping he can put things right at home to Ballynagross next week.