Northern Ireland’s Cerebral Palsy team had to settle for silver at the CP Men’s World Championships.
Alan Crooks’ side lost in the final to Scotland, the only team to defeat them in the group stage of the competition, which was staged in Salou in Spain.
The Men’s World Championships are organised by the International Federation of CP Football. They are for teams ranked 17 to 32 in the world ranking list.
Scotland were the highest ranked team in the tournament (17th) and they lived up to their ranking against Northern Ireland (20th) in the gold medal match.
However, Northern Ireland leave the stage with their heads held high. They won three out of four games in the round-robin group stage to secure a place in the decider.
In today’s final, staged at the Futbol Salou complex, a stirring performance from captain and player of the tournament Matthew Wynne helped Scotland to victory.
The skipper scored twice and assisted another, with Mark Robertson and Jamie Mitchell also netting to give Scotland the trophy thanks to a 4-0 win.
Northern Ireland played some decent football throughout, however the Scots always had the edge.
Robertson combined with Wynne to fashion the opener, the skipper striking from outside the box to put Scotland in front.
Then Mitchell drove the ball into the top left corner to double the lead.
And straight from the kick-off Scotland won the ball back and fed it to Robertson who slotted it past Northern Ireland keeper Paul Cassidy.
During the first half Scotland’s Martin Hickman also missed a penalty.
Another Wynne goal completed the scoring for the Scots after the interval.
In the group stage Northern Ireland enjoyed 5-1 win victories over both Chile (ranked 18th in the world) and South Korea (24th), and they also defeated Italy (19th) by a goal to nil. They lost 3-0 against Scotland.
Northern Ireland CP squad: Paul Cassidy (GK) (Belfast), Charlie Fogarty (Birmingham), Oisin McGurk (Magherafelt), Jordan Walker (captain) (Belfast), Sean Coyle (Coleraine), Jordan Cush (Belfast), David Leavy (Castlewellan), Declan McDonnell (Belfast), Ryan Walker (Armagh), Charley Emerson (Belfast), Finn Mullan (Carrickfergus).
