In the lead up to Monday’s Towns’ Cup final, Skins head coach Stevie Welsh had told the Impartial Reporter that the only way his side would be remembered outside their own generation would be to clinch that first title in 82 years.

And at Kingspan Stadium his side duly delivered as they produced a powerful and dominant performance to see off Ballyclare on a 19-0 scoreline.

For Welsh, who has tasted Towns’ Cup final defeats as a player, the victory meant everything.

“It is surreal but it will probably set in over the next couple of days,” smiled the Skins coach in the media room at the stadium. “It is all I have wanted to do and it means the world. No-one can take this away from us and for years to come I will share something with every single one of these boys. Hopefully we will get a few more but if we don’t our picture will be up there on the wall with the cup for generations to come.”

Skins came into the game on the back of a strong run of results which was built around their pack and exerting pressure on their opponents and that was crucial in securing the win on Monday.

“We knew how to affect pressure with our set piece and our dominant pack and that’s what we went in to do. It’s what has served us really well over the second half of the season, it’s about building the pressure. We have enough fellas in the team that know how to play rugby and we have good leaders all across the park and they carried out the gameplan and bar five minutes I think we did that the whole game,” he stated.

Enniskillen bossed matters from the off but only had five points to show for it at half time. Indeed, Ballyclare, for the only time in the game, threatened the Skins line late in the half with Welsh feeling his side had become sloppy for a spell.

However, he believes that a yellow card to centre James Ferguson helped regain the focus for his side.

“We felt with the pressure we had we should have gone in with a bigger lead at half time. It was better though than going in behind.

“Coming up to half time we had got a wee bit ahead of ourselves with a few silly kicks before James was sinbinned. It maybe did us a favour, it settled the team and we regrouped at half time. We got back to basics and to what we are good at and we closed them out.

“You have to take your hat off to the boys, a hot day like that and emotions running but they were able to keep calm and produce the right plays.

“The boys executed the plan exactly how we had asked them during the week,” he added.

That his side held Ballyclare scoreless was one of the most pleasing aspects of the performance for a delighted Welsh.

“They are a quality team so to stop them scoring points is unbelievable.

I’m delighted with keeping them to nil,” stated the Skins coach.

There was also gushing praise for prop Gavin Warrington who scored two of Skins three tries on the day as he rounded off the season as the side’s top try scorer with 13 to his name.

“He’ll be hard to listen to tonight,” laughed Welsh. “I think that’s 13 tries, he’s unbelievable. People joke about it but he knows where to get a try and he is a phenomenal warrior. To be scrumming down at 35 years of age and be on top of his game in Ulster junior rugby, it is totally deserved.”

And he feels that there is more to come from this team.

“This team has bags of potential and I hope we can push on and hopefully this win will also inspire the younger players at the club,” he commented.