Foyle Harps beat Rosemount to win the Bronco Bradley Cup

Foyle Harps 6

Rosemount 4

Foyle Harps ended Rosemount’s hopes of a third successive Bronco Bradley Cup in one of the best finals held at Leafair in recent memory.

Calvin McCallion was the star of the show for Harps, scoring four goals in all, two in each half, as Harps added another trophy to their cabinet, just weeks after winning the Terry Kelly Cup.

This was a fitting way to celebrate the 40th year of the Bronco Cup, with both teams playing fantastic attacking football at the end of a week of superb entertainment at Leafair.

A goal in the first minute was a sign of things to come as Jamie Dunne dinked a perfect pass in behind the Rosemount defence, perfect for McCallion who volleyed in his first from close range.

Harps were well on top in the early going and Dunne almost made it 2-0 with a brilliant solo run from the right wing, using his pace to cut into the penalty area, where he drew goalkeeper Lee Wade before chipping the ball past him, with the ball going across the face of goal and hitting the base of the post before it was cleared.

Rosemount woke up quickly after that and equalised with their first real effort on goal, PJ Ward meeting Eoin McKeever’s corner with a glancing header which flew past Conor Brown to make it 1-1.

It was Rosemount’s turn to get on top and McKeever in particular was causing serios problems for the Harps defender; the midfielder opened up a great shooting opportunity for himself, but with everyone encouraging him to go for it, he opted instead to play in Ward, who was unable to beat Brown because the angle was too tight.

That was a key moment as Harps went up the pother end and restored their early lead. Moments after seeing his free-kick saved by Wade, Benny McFadden flicked the ball cleverly in behind the Rosemount defence into the path of McCallion, who showed great composure to hold off a defender, round the goalkeeper and fire the ball into the empty net. That gave Harps a 2-1 lead at half-time, but there was plenty more to come.

Half-time 2-1

Harps extended their lead just three minutes into the second half when Dean Brown’s shot from outside the area somehow found its way past Wade, perhaps with the aid of a slight deflection, but Harps weren’t overanalyzing it as they celebrated going 3-1 up.

But Rosemount hit back immediately when half-time substitute Mo Crossan smashed the ball in from close range after Harps failed to clear a corner.

It then became three goals in four minutes as Harps restored their two-goal advantage, Brown’s bullet header from close range giving Wade absolutely no chance.

Every time that Rosemount looked out of the game, they dug deep to fight back and to the amazement and dismay of Harps, they levelled the game with two goals in three minutes. The comeback started with a scintillating finish from Jack Coyle, who was gifted the ball on the edge of the area, and he curled it beautifully beyond Brown and into the top corner to make it 4-3.

Coyle was there again two minutes later to head in from another corner and all of a sudden, it was 4-4 in a cup final which looked over just minutes earlier.

There was no way of knowing which way this cup final was going to go, but in nig games like these, you can always count on McCallion, and he produced a moment of real quality to put Harps back into th lead with just five minutes remaining. Harps substitute Sean McCarron found McCallion with his back to goal, but the striker turned a got a yard on Eugene Deery, before firing the ball expertly into the corner for his hat trick to make it 5-4 and put one hand on the trophy.

McCallion’s great work was almost undone by one of his own team mates less than 60 seconds later as Tony Duffy almost put the ball into his own net, but he was saved by Brown, who scrambled back and somehow clawed the errant back pass off the line.

The game was finally won in the final minute when more brilliant work from Brown saw McCallion in on goal, and the striker was never going to miss, smashing the ball past Wade to start the celebrations for Foyle Harps at the end of an amazing cup final.

Referee - Mark McGarrigle