Bushmills jam-packed as village hosts SuperCupNI action for the very first time
Bushmills celebrated a landmark occasion as the village played host to its first ever games in the SuperCupNI tournament.
After years of lobbying the powers-that-be at the football tournament for Bushmills to host games, it was exclusively revealed by the News Letter back in March that the village will play its part this week.
Match co-ordinator Mervyn Greer said the tournament coming to the north coast hotspot has already driven tourism and that the local community is 'thriving' to welcome some of the best youth footballers across the world to the Bobby Greer Sports Complex.
"It's something we could only dream of," said Greer about Bushmills' role in the SuperCupNI tournament.
"Since I was a cub playing here, you only thought that the SuperCupNI is such a large international tournament and we never in our wildest dreams thought we could get it here.
"But after a lot of hard work we are finally here and we're hoping for a very good week.
"We are expecting with the local games and with Rangers coming here today that Bushmills will be thriving.
"We are not expecting any empty spaces to stand and local businesses are putting on deals for people going to games and selling programmes.
"The village is buzzing for it and it's such a pleasure to have it here."
Mr Greer added that most of Bushmills' preparation has been done independently and they are pleased to welcome such a variety of teams to the venue.
He stated: "This has been an ongoing plan by the Bushmills United Youth set-up as we always had that goal to push and be bigger and see how far we could get.
"We realised a couple of years ago how great the facility is here and how well we can get the pitch looking, we thought 'why not try our hand'?
"We heard about the possibility of hosting SuperCupNI games six months ago and it's been non-stop since. We've stayed off the pitch, we've completed all the work that needs done and we have done it all ourselves.
"We have a couple of local teams to get us started and then we have Scottish giants in the afternoon playing a local county team.
"We have a mix of county teams, large academy set-ups and other clubs around the world, plus our local teams which we are really glad to see.
"There are a couple of young players who played for our youth team in the first game playing for Coleraine, which is great to see."
The first game played at Bushmills saw Crusaders run out 9-1 winners against Coleraine in the Minor Section.
A hat-trick from the impressive Michael Mulholland caught the eye, with Finn Hegarty (2), Daniel Clarke, Adam Mulholland, Thomas Kelly and Lucas McGrath also on target for the prolific Hatchetmen.
Coleraine were competitive throughout but a lack of physicality proved problematic but they did have a goal to celebrate as Noah Tohill found the back of the net.
A large crowd was then in attendance as Scottish giants Rangers faced County Fermanagh in the afternoon, with the local team coming out 2-1 winners through goals from Jay Ely and Kacper Ferens.