Shankel United in good hands with teenage goalkeeper Matty Tyree

The appearance of school goalkeeper Matt Tyer at Shankill United is a sign that the club’s future is in good hands, both literally and figuratively.

That is the view of coach Dave McClinden, who this season was forced by an injury crisis at Hummer to quickly include a group of promising youngsters in the first team.

Young Thierry, still 15, has struggled with his performance in the past few weeks since his accomplishments, but he’s not alone, impressed with 17-year-old David Houston and Jack Anderson as they are now number one. Ordinary team members.

McKelden knows this definitely isn’t an ideal situation when he sees whether these guys are sinking into an unforgivable stellar department where experience is so important.

But due to the loss of several key players – Paul Acheson (Achilles) and Curtis Blake (AFC Champions League) off-season, and 2020’s Phil Gordon and Kyle Dillon also long-term departures – Shankel’s main Hans has left. I didn’t have many options.

“This season has been high and low,” MacLondon told Match. We had our ambitions and we kept them at home, but we felt we had a team that achieved those ambitions.

“When we had our team and the players, we got together, we beat East Belfast and win six to five or something.

“So it was disappointing, but you know what, it’s always been like this since we came to the club.

“You can be competitive when you have all the players available. When two or three are missing…but the situation is that it will create another opportunity for the youngsters.

Johnny (Martin) stopped yesterday, so we brought in Jodi Galachan, who is 17/18, Lucas’ brother, who plays for us in midfield and had a great season, and Jodi has grown into a good young man. frequency and power loads.

“He had a lot of problems when he came off the bench. So it’s been a frustrating season, but it allows us to give chances to young players that we wanted to have a chance with.

“However, it will probably be 12 or 18 months earlier than I would have imagined it would happen, but those are just circumstances dictating. We just dropped them and they definitely didn’t let us down, they were great for us.”

Sur missed Saturday when Schenkel lost 2-1 at home to Border Cup champions Derya.

But McIlinden looks to the bigger picture, welcoming the likes of Jason Heveron, Craig McCann, the late Steve Maddox and Paul Thierry to make sure the talent is on display.

“They deserve a lot of credit, they’ve built all that foundation over the years,” he said.

Matt played last week and avoided Pallinahink which isn’t the easiest thing, he made three really great saves and I think Minto (Niall Murray) commented on social media with how well he’s doing and then playing. Back yesterday, with a featured save in the back post, we don’t know how it got there.

He still has a lot to learn but he’s a good guy, he wants to learn and he wants to play for Schenkel United and that’s very important for us.

“Eight from this party made their first-team debuts this year and 20 played first-team or reserve football, so it’s been a really rewarding season in that way.

“And we couldn’t have survived without them, frankly, they’ve done really well, hopefully they’ll have a good future, they’ve shown a lot of promise.

The club has to be built on that, and ever since we came, Ryan (McMain) and Mark Clegg, it’s always been that way.