The annual Blues Awards dinner was held this year in the Whitla Hall with guest speaker Jim Magilton. Congratulations to Full Blues award winners Brenden McAleese, Connor Mulholland, David Magee and Phil Prenter.

It went all the way to the wire with 6 people still left in before this weeks fixtures and, as expected, has resulted in a split pot. Four people again picked winners this weekend with two going out. Congratulations to those who managed to pick a winner an amazing twelve weeks in a row. Everyone here at QUBAFC would like to thank all those who took part and hope you enjoyed it. Roll on next season!!! Hit the link below to see who picked which teams.
Club fundraiser spreadsheet

The FAI Futsal competition for Universities and Colleges in Ireland is in its second year and for the first time teams from N. Ireland have competed. The northern group heats were played in the Queen's PE Centre this week and Queen's easily qualified for the finals with wins against Dundalk IT and Belfast Metropolitan College.

Results:-

QUB 3 (Patrick Donnelly (2), David Fulton) vs Belfast Metropolitan College 0
QUB 3 (David Fulton, Brian Wright, David Magee) vs Dundalk IT 2
Belfast Metropolitan College 1 vs QUB 3 (David Fulton, Patrick Donnelly, David Magee)
Dundalk IT 0 vs QUB 4 (Patrick Donnelly, David Fulton, Fergal McCloskey, DJ Canavan)

Queen's squad was - Peter Mallett, Chris Payne, DJ Canavan, Eamon Black, Patrick Donnelly, David Fulton, Brian Wright, Fergal McCloskey, David Magee, Conor Simpson

The finals against the winners of the 5 other groups will be in Limerick on Monday 19th April.

At the end of January we held a very successful and enjoyable reunion to mark the 25th anniversary of Queen’s victory in the Collingwood Cup in Cork in 1985. Thirty people in attendance was a fantastic response from the members of that squad including the manager of the team Harry Blair and those now living in England, Ian Brown, Ed Murray and Phil Freckleton. Jim Totton would have been there too but for illness. Bishop Tony Farquhar was present as were a number of Queen’s players from that era, one of the club’s most successful periods.

The managers of the University College Cork team on that day, Kieran Dowd and Liam McCarthy came up from Cork and Shane McCullough, a UUJ player in that Collingwood, and now manager of the UUJ Collingwood team met up with some old friends and rivals too.

RTE had filmed that final and each player in the squad was presented with a DVD of the game, one for the grandchildren.

It was clear that seeing so many colleagues, 25 years on, meant a lot and it was interesting to see how appearances have changed.

All in all a great night.

Budweiser has announced it will sponsor Queens University Belfast Football Club for the eighth year running. The first team has been promoted to the IFA Championship League this season and hope to have a successful year in the new league which is directly below the IFA Premier League. The Budweiser sponsorship allows the team to purchase a new kit and training gear and provides support for functions throughout the season. Budweiser spokesperson Jeff Tosh, Regional Director, On Trade NI for InBev Ireland Ltd comments: “We are proud to be sponsoring Queen’s University Football Club for the eighth year running especially with their promotion to the new IFA Championship League. This proves that there is real talent in the team and we look forward to supporting the team throughout the season.” Budweiser supports football from grass roots level through to the Barclay’s Premier League sponsorship.

The picture shows Dee presenting the £400 prize to the happy winner.

Congratulations to Phil Prenter winner of our latest “Last man standing” competition. Phil, Dee Tumilty and Nigel Simpson were the last 3 contestants going into week 8 which proved to be the final week. Phil chose Aston Villa and the others went for Man City who were held to a draw thanks to a late Burnley goal.

A big thank you to everybody who took part and to the many people who made the competition work, especially Dee Tumilty, who coordinated all the team selections each week and updated the database.

We intend to organise a reunion to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Queen's Collingwood Cup victory in Cork, January 1985. [Read on]

UUC, fresh from an opening day 5-0 victory over Magee last week, were the visitors on.
Match Report

Queen's got their University League campaign off to a great start with a big win over Letterkenny at the Dub.
Match Report