It was a “Carlsberg Saturday” for Barry Baggley as he watched his son score a worldie for Fleetwood before taking a phone call just moments later to hear Rosario were promoted.
The Roses boss says he was too superstitious to head down with his players to Millisle, where they needed Abbey Villa to win in order to prevent Kilmore leapfrogging them on the final day of 1A.
Jonathan Busby’s men did exactly that, bringing the curtain down with a fifth straight league win, but Baggley didn’t want to hear about it until the final whistle, preferring instead to stream Barry junior’s game.
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And it wasn’t a bad decision as he watched his 20-year-old cub place a delicious chip from wide on the right into the top corner to put the visitors ahead at Bolton Wanderers.
Cue pandemonium in the Baggley household – a tweet he put up on the goal and subsequent celebrations has been viewed more than 30,000 times.
But just as things were settling down, he took a phone call to be told that Rosario’s season, which looked dead and buried just a few weeks ago, was also finishing on a high.
“It was unbelievable yesterday,” Baggley told Match On Tuesday, “Carlsberg Saturdays, eh?
“My stream was delayed and it came up on my phone Baggley had scored, so I said to my dad, ‘Jesus, Barry has scored,’ so I knew it was going to come and went on my phone to record it so that’s how I was able to catch it... unbelievable.
“And then a few of the lads were down at Abbey Villa, I didn’t go down, I couldn’t have sat through it. I told them, ‘Do not ring me until the final whistle,’ so nobody contacted me and I didn’t know what was happening until literally the whistle blew and then all the boys and the texts started coming through, I couldn’t believe it.”
Having looked destined to challenge Comber and co for the title from the outset, a damaging dip in form midway through the season almost cost Rosario everything.
And while they ended the campaign strongly with nine wins from their last 10, a loss to promotion rivals Kilmore handed the latter the advantage.
With Baggley’s men finishing their season early on April 2, they set Kilmore a target of 59 points. Sitting on 58 with two games to go, Michael Carvill’s men were big favourites, but a draw to Dromara in their penultimate game and Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Abbey Villa means it is Rosario who will join Comber in the Premier Division next season.
“Once Kilmore beat us at home, I knew all we could do was look after our own games, do our own job, win the rest of our games and what happens,” added Baggley.
“I thought Kilmore would get over the line if I’m being honest, but for me, it just shows the integrity of the league.
“It would have been easy for teams to lie down but Abbey Villa went and won their last five games so for me, that’s massive, because as I say, it would have been easy for teams to be on their holidays.
“So fair play to the league, it shows it in a really good light and that we all play to the last minute.
“But I think we deserved it, especially after the Covid thing that happened. If you add up the two seasons, pre-Covid and post-Covid, we would be 16 points clear of everybody, so over two seasons, you can’t argue with that.”
It will be Rosario’s first season in the top flight for exactly a decade, and Baggley can’t wait.
“We need to add a few but even if we were staying in 1A we would have because it’s always good to freshen up,” said the Rosario manager.
“We’re not just going up to take part, we’re going to try and compete. Every week we are going to have the Mac, East Belfast, Crumlin Star, Derriaghy, so it’s going to be tough but here, we’re looking forward to it, that’s where we want to be.”
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