Young fan the real winner as Paddy McCourt hands over Charity Shield medal

Paddy McCourt made a young Glenavon fan’s dreams come true by giving him his winner’s medal from Saturday’s Charity Shield game against Crusaders.

The Derry midfielder, who recently joined the Mourneview Park club, played an hour as ten man Glenavon held off Crusaders to pick up the first silverware of the new Irish League season.

The Lurgan Blues faced an uphill task after Mark Patton was dismissed in the first half for a last-man foul on Gavin Whyte.

McCourt, making his home debut for Glenavon, was among those to go close for Glenavon before Jordan Jenkins fired home the winner with 12 minutes left. The substitute hit the Crusaders net after the visitors failed to clear a free-kick from Glenavon player/manager Gary Hamilton.

But the real story came after the game as McCourt was making his way to conduct interviews with the media.

Asked to take a picture with a young Glenavon fan, McCourt was informed that the youngster was a massive fan of his.

To the disbelief of the fan and his father, McCourt then took off his winner’s medal and placed it around the neck of the young supporter.

The father took to Twitter afterwards to hail the Northern Ireland international, tweeting ‘Paddy McCourt just made my son’s year’.