Ballinamallard’s Darragh Byrne scored the winning goal as the Northern Ireland Regions Cup team defeated Georgia 1-0 to win their final match of the UEFA tournament, but Harry McConkey’s side missed out on qualification for the knockout stages after narrow defeats to hosts Switzerland and the Republic of Ireland.

The aim of the UEFA Regions Cup is to take an 18-man squad of amateur players from a Region within the country into European competition, and treat them with all the trappings of a professional player and help develop them as football players and people.

McConkey’s side featured four Ballinamallard United players - Tiarnan Campbell, Nathan Sherry and brothers Reece and Darragh Byrne - as well as Nick Palmer and Matty Callaghan from Fivemiletown United.

The manager was delighted with the performance of his squad, and felt they deserved more than one win from their three games.

“We went into the last game with no points on the board and we knew that wasn’t a fair reflection of things,” said McConkey.

“We certainly didn’t deserve to be finishing bottom of the group, but ultimately we are disappointed because we know we weren’t that far away from being at the top of the group.”

Northern Ireland opened their tournament with a match against Switzerland, but with the players having spent Saturday playing for their own local clubs and Sunday travelling, McConkey knew they were going into the contest underprepared.

“The first-half against Switzerland was a very difficult one,” he conceded.

“We didn’t play the football that we had planned to play from the back out. We found ourselves going too direct at times and not retaining the ball. When they scored against us we actually relaxed and we played very well and finished the game strongly. We scored a goal which the video later showed was onside but was adjudged to be offside.”

Next up was a derby against the Republic of Ireland, and McConkey felt a 2-1 defeat was harsh on his team. 

“We deserved at the very least a point in the game if not all three points. We got lots of plaudits from the locals, but we came out on the wrong side of the result,” he said.

“They were a physical side and we knew if we could get the ball down and play we could eliminate a certain amount of that physicality and we did just that. I thought we had a very lively front four with John Butcher at centre forward and Darragh Byrne on the right and Ethan Nethery on the left and Reece Byrne behind that.

"All young players with great energy. We caused them a problem and got a great goal from a set piece when Nathan Sherry timed his run perfectly. We had got the momentum in the game and had another few efforts, but we failed to convert and as a result of not taking the opportunities we got stung.”

Although hopes of qualification were over before the final game against Georgia McConkey’s squad finally got the win they were searching for with Darragh Byrne netting the only goal of the game.

It was a fitting way to mark a record-breaking game for McConkey, who became the most experienced manager in the history of the Regions Cup tournament having now overseen 47 matches at the helm of Northern Ireland.