Home success for McConkey's men

Northern Ireland Eastern Region progressed to the UEFA Regions' Cup intermediary round after two wins and a draw in a mini-tournament on home soil.

Disastrous opening
Harry McConkey's side overcame a stuttering first 45 minutes to overcome rivals from Finland, Scotland and Latvia in the Group West preliminary round in Northern Ireland, and will now KFS Hradec Králove of the Czech Republic, England's Isle of Man League and Slovakia's Bratislava Amateur in intermediary round Group 4 to battle for a place in next summer's finals.

Scottish success
The hosts trailed to goals from Teemu Toukonen and Matti Anttonen at half-time in their opening game against District of Uusimaa, represented by FC City Stars -82, in Ballymena but struck back in the second half through Barry Holland and Thomas Duffy. On the same day, Central Scotland scored three times in the opening 25 minutes of their game against Latvia's Vizeme to win 3-0. William Nicholson, James Wilson and Sean Simpson found the target.

Final-day drama
The Scottish side held City Stars to a second successive draw in their next game while Northern Ireland joined them on four points at the top of the table with a 3-1 win against Vidzeme in Newry. Stephen Magennis's early strike was cancelled out by a free-kick from Maksims Rajevs but a Glen Upton header and a Darren Kitson penalty set the hosts up for a dramatic final tie.

'Clear objectives'
And while City Stars won the all Baltic tie against Vidzeme with a goal from Pekka Pyykko, a 17th-minute goal from Timothy Grant proved to be enough to give Northern Ireland victory against their near neighbours in Lurgan and sealed their place in the Group 4 mini-tournament in the Czech Republic which will be held later this year. "The players went into this competition with two clear objectives," said McConkey. "One was to qualify. The other was to put in a good performance on behalf of themselves and their country and I think they've definitely achieved that."

Scots disappointed
Central Scotland manager Hugh Carswell was not so pleased. "We expected ourselves to qualify for the intermediary round - we are very disappointed," he told uefa.com. City Stars' boss Pertti Jantunen was also left with regrets. "In two matches we scored first but we couldn't bring it home," he said. Meanwhile, despite losing all of their games and scoring only once, Vidzeme striker Sijats Oskars said his side were going home happy. "For us, it was a great experience and a good time," he said.