Community spirit driving Naomh Pádraig Uisce Chaoin on

By Shaun Casey

TRAGEDY struck the Naomh Pádraig Uisce Chaoin club back in September when 24-year-old Evan Craig sadly passed away and his death has brought the whole community together, says Jonathan Toye.

Daniel McCauley’s team have already created history this season, winning the Donegal Junior Championship for the very first time, and this Saturday, they’ll take on Craigbane in their first-ever Ulster final appearance.

Youngsters decked out in blue and white stormed Healy Park, Omagh at the full-time whistle of last Saturday’s convincing semi-final win over Collegeland, and now it’s about delivering on the big day.

“We’ve had a tough few months in our community,” said Toye, who gave an incredible performance from centre half-back in their 1-11 to 1-4 semi-final victory last week, kicking 0-2.

“We lost one of our own, and he is with us every single day of this journey, and he’s going to be with us on Saturday. The only sad part about it is he can’t be here, but we are doing it for him and doing it for the community.

“There’s a lot of boys on the team that would have been close with Evan. We could really see it was hitting them, and the rest of us boys, so we rallied in behind them. I have to admit, the community has come together. It’s been tough. We’re doing it for him, we’re doing it for the Craig family. We’re doing it for his girlfriend, his sisters, mother and father, granny and granda. And it’s just great to see that we can have such a community come together in such tough times.”

This team has taken the club to places they never thought imaginable and even when they conquered all before them in Donegal, a provincial title was just a pipe dream. “Words can’t really describe it to be honest,” Toye continued.

“I think we’re on the go a year now since our first training session and there’s probably not a lot of teams can say they have been training a year. But after we won the county final, if you ask me, we were into bonus territory.

“We played in patches in the quarter-final and in the semi-final as well but all that matters is getting to the final. To win a county final for the first time in our history, and then through to Ulster, words can’t really describe it to be honest.”

Toye kicked his side’s first point last weekend after just 25 seconds, and that quick start has been a theme in all of their games. “Last week, the quarter-final and the county final, we’ve had a fast start in all of them,” he added.

“We kicked six or seven long-range points against St Comghall’s, and we did the same there the last day in the first 17 minutes. We knew they (Collegeland) were going to come out hard in the second half, and in fairness to us, we steadied the ship.”