De La Salle goalkeeper Shane Burke can’t hide his delight at the final whistle as he celebrates with team mate Tim Skelly

De La Salle goalkeeper Shane Burke can’t hide his delight at the final whistle as he celebrates with team mate Tim Skelly

De La Salle played 19 games during the season in both competitions.
They won 18 and drew one. One of their top players has been goalkeeper Shane Burke. He was voted Man of the Match on Sunday. His father Eoin was the manager of the team until his untimely death last December so needless to say this season has been a very special one for Shane and the entire Burke family.
Speaking after the game, Shane Burke said, “I’m delighted that I came back from Ferrybank and I said at the start of the season that we’d be happy with middle of the table but this is just incredible. We just kept on winning and kept on going but to win the cup after winning the league is great.
“I knew that we had a good squad and I suppose the thing with De La Salle is that you always get 13 or 14 up training every week so I was thinking that if we could keep that going we could finish high up in the table but I didn’t think we’d achieve this.
“I was thinking that if we could maybe challenge for third or fourth in the league but I never expected that we could win it. I suppose when we drew 0-0 with Tramore and we had chances to win it that maybe then we were a lot better than we thought we were going to be.
“When you think about the work that we put into the season, it’s remarkable. When the Division 1A side finished, they stayed with us so it just hasn’t been about us as a group of Youth players, it’s been from top to bottom.
Holding his emotion back, Burke paid tribute his late father Eoin. “He would be thrilled for us and I know that he is. We all fought for his name on the back of our jersey and we’re just delighted. It’s been an amazing year for us all and it’s great that we can keep his memory.