A day spent on the road as the CTIC Soccer Schools tour party headed north along the west coast of Ireland to the picturesque town of Donegal.

Having bid farewell to Patrick Vieira whose personal tour schedule sends him to Abu Dhabi to link up with the City Academy players and coaches for the next few days, the remainder of our party prepared for the gruelling six-hour journey through some of the most remote areas of Ireland.

Paul Lake was the man behind the wheel for the first half of the drive, although it wasn’t long until some rather suspect navigational skills saw us veer slightly off course on to terrain that even the trusty CITC van couldn’t cope with.

 

That mini-adventure added an extra hour on to our already punishing expedition although it was soon forgotten as the group sat down and enjoyed lunch in an Olde Irish pub in the nearby town of Sligo, although not after unsuspectingly driving straight into a carpark which was home to a community of Irish travellers! Needless to say our sky blue chariot emblazoned with the City crest caused a few raised eyebrows amongst the locals!

CITC coach Mike Dixon was our captain for the rest of the journey and we safely arrived in Donegal in good time to meet up with members of the Donegal OSC and Finn Park FC ahead of tomorrow’s soccer schools and festivities which will see another 100 children receive some fantastic free coaching and hopefully another impressive sum raised for charity.