Scottish Catholic Observer

The Glasgow primary school competition concluded on Saturday October 26 at Lochburn Park in Maryhill.

Extra time was needed in the hard-fought game between St Anne’s and St Brigid’s Primary School, Toryglen, before a winner was found.

St Anne’s striker Johnny Thomson completed a brace in extra time to take the school to a 2-1 victory in the inaugural Pope’s Charity Cup. The competition was organised by Missio Scotland in collaboration with Glasgow Catholic Schools Football Association.

Competition

“Both teams deserved to be in the cup final,” said Fergus Donnelly of the Glasgow Catholic Schools FA who had watched the semi-finals. “We knew it was going to be a great game.”

The final didn’t disappoint. St Anne’s opened the scoring in the first half as Johnny Thomson slotted away a neat finish under the keeper to the delight of coach Michael Miller, but victory was far from cut and dried.

Mr Miller said: “In the first half I thought we deserved our lead but in the second half I thought St Brigid’s, fair play to them, put us under serious amounts of pressure.”

Top scorers

After hitting the post twice in the second half, St Brigid’s finally turned their pressure into a deserved goal scored by Alex Egaguie to take the tie to extra time.

St Anne’s got the winning goal in extra time after a long kick from their keeper allowed Johnny Thomson a one-on-one chance against the St Brigid’s keeper who couldn’t keep out a powerful strike from the forward.

“I’m delighted for wee Johnny,” the coach said. “You can see he’s got great pace and an eye for a goal.”

Huge success

Fergus Donnelly and Liam Mclaren of Glasgow Catholic Schools FA took a call from Missio over a year ago with the idea of a competitive cup to start the season, which their committee ‘jumped on.’

“It was a huge success,” said Mr Mclaren of the tournament in which every primary school team took part.

“The cup was aimed at giving pupils the opportunity to play in a real stadium, with a lot of noise and atmosphere.

“It’s an incredible experience for the children, something that will stay with them forever,” said Mr Donnelly.

Excitement

St Anne’s coach Mr Miller said the real success of the cup was getting more pupils involved and excited about football: “It gives them a wee taste of it. I think the noise and everything was brilliant and they’ll all want to come back later on.”

For Missio Scotland’s national director Fr Vincent Lockhart, there was more at play than a local football match between two Glasgow Schools. As part of his role with Missio Scotland he could see a global impact and expects to take news of the cup to both Uganda and Rome.

“Children in the Catholic primary schools collect money all the time for children in other parts of the world. That sense of sharing is something that the Pope is very strong about,” he said.

“Today they shared their talents and football skills.”

Rome visit

Fr Lockhart will visit Uganda later this year where ‘kids love to play football too’ and he intends showing a video of the final to children there to show them that the children in Scotland who give to charity also share in their love of the game.

After the tournament Fr Lockhart joked that he will visit Rome along with all national directors of the pontifical missionary societies and he plans to take the Cup with him to visit the Pope and get his blessing.

“I’m hoping I’ll take the cup and get him to hold it,” he said. “He’s a man who loves his football so hopefully that will happen.”