First Team
Youngsters head for Northern Ireland
19th July 2018
Head of Youth Development Alistair Stevenson and his coaching staff will take the club's U14s side to Northern Ireland this Sunday to take part in the 2018 SuperCupNI which gets underway next week.
Formerly known as the Northern Ireland Milk Cup, the SuperCupNI is one of the best-known youth football tournaments and attracts some of the biggest football clubs from around the world.
Eighteen players from the U14s will be joined by 4 coaches for the week, with Saints taking part in the youngest age group level with 11 other clubs.
9 Irish sides will be involved in Saints' age group, and the two other foreign clubs involved are West Ham United and Reeds Football Academy from India.
The games will be played at Ulster University, Coleraine and Saints U14s will be in a group with Linfield, Glentoran and Glenavon. Group stage matches will be played Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with final playoffs played on Thursday and Friday if Saints progress to the latter stages.
The club has history in this competition and this will be the third time that a Saints side has participated in the tournament. Back in 1995, a youth team featuring the likes of Danny Griffin and Stuart McCluskey went on to win the Plate Competition, defeating Blackburn Rovers in the final.
Saints sent a team again a few years later but on that occasion they did not progress to the latter stages and the current crop of young players will be hoping they can fare better and achieve similar success to the '95 squad.
This Saturday, Saints' U14 and U16s will be in action against two Tenerife Select sides.
The U14s match kicks-off at 12:30, with the U16s following afterwards at 14:30.