Danske Bank MacRory Cup Group B: St Patrick’s, Maghera 5-12 St Macartan’s, Monaghan 1-11
ST MACARTAN’S, Monaghan may have scored more often than St Patrick’s, Maghera in the first half of this final Danske Bank MacRory Cup tie, but they were still in arrears at the break against a slicker side who were very clinical in front of goal.
The game was switched to Emyvale yesterday and the venue held up well to allow a free-flowing game in which Maghera always looked the more likely winner, although St Macartan’s gave a good account of themselves with Chrissy Flood and Oisín Fagan leading the charge.
The ‘Sem’ went 0-2 to 0-1 up after six minutes through Mattie Maguire and Conor McCooey, but Daithí McLaughlin slipped in for the opening goal a few minutes later and Maghera never lost the lead after that.
Points from Maguire and Niall McKenna narrowed the gap to 0-4 to 1-2 before the second Maghera goal arrived courtesy of Eunan Mulholland in the 25th minute.
Maghera turned around with a 2-3 to 0-6 advantage at the break and Alex Doherty stretched that with a couple of points and a goal during the third quarter.
Doherty had a fine game overall, as had the first half goalscorers and Conor Milne.
Conleth McShane bagged a fourth Maghera goal just before Gary Mohan scored a three-pointer for St Macartan’s in the 50th minute.
Doherty capped off a good day for himself and his team when he completed a good move for the fifth Maghera goal a short time later.
Maghera will now play their Armagh namesakes in the Danske Bank MacCormack Cup semi-final at the start of January, while St Macartan’s will be keeping an eye on Tuesday’s elimination play-off between St Mary’s, Magherafelt and Abbey CBS as the winner will be their next opponent in the MacRory Cup at the end of January.
St Patrick’s scorers: A Doherty (2-6, 0-2 frees), D McLaughlin (1-1), C McShane (1-1), E Mulholland (1-0), F Bradley, T McHugh, PJ McAleese, P Shivers (0-1 each).
St Macartan’s scorers: G Mohan (1-1), M Maguire (0-4, 0-3 frees), C McCooey (0-3, 0-2 frees), N McKenna, L Power, C McCrystal (0-1 each)
Holy Trinity, Cookstown v St Paul’s, Bessbrook (Friday, Stewartstown, 3pm)
HOLY Trinity will probably go into Friday’s Danske Bank MacRory Cup eliminator in a more positive frame of mind than St Paul’s, Bessbrook.
St Paul’s looked to be going well in their opening fixture with St Patrick’s, Armagh until the wheels came off around the 40th minute.
From then until the end of the game, Armagh were in charge.
There was more fight in them against Carrickmacross but the result didn’t go their way and they went down 3-7 to 3-5.
Last day out, against St Eunan’s, Letterkenny, they again fell away after the Donegal side put their foot on the gas after the break.
Cookstown lost Mark Devlin (right) to a red card in Sunday’s game against Maghera at a time when they were playing well and he will be missed in the play-off today.
In each of their three games they have played well. They beat Cavan in their opening fixture, but then let a 0-8 to 0-6 lead go in the last couple of minutes against St Macartan’s, Monaghan to fall to a 2-8 to 0-8 defeat.
Nevertheless, there were periods in each of those games where Cookstown’s quality of football was good and with a little more luck they could have been safely into the play-offs.
There is no reason why they still can’t achieve that goal, if they can maintain their attention span right through to the long whistle.
At this level of competition lapses in concentration can quickly result in uphill climbs for the rest of the game.
There is no doubting that both teams have some excellent footballers, but rarely can individual brilliance turn a game unless there is solid support throughout the team.
On balance, Holy Trinity look to have more strong footballers and their maiden MacRory Cup journey should continue for another seven or eight weeks.
St Patrick’s Academy, Dungannon v St Mary’s, Belfast (Friday, Maghery, 1.30pm)
TWO teams that have leaked a total of 21 goals between them in their group games will attempt to stay in the Danske Bank MacRory Cup shake-up beyond Christmas.
St Patrick’s Academy have conceded nine goals in three games and that is only three better than the 12 balls that the St Mary’s CBGS, Belfast goalkeeper has had to lift out of his net.
Indeed, not too many are giving St Mary’s any hope of remaining in the competition beyond this aternoon.
The Glen Road school have shipped three straight defeats of 20 points or more, and went the full duration of the first half in last week’s game with Omagh without raising a single flag.
But having said that, all their opponents were experienced teams, with St Ronan’s and St Mary’s, Magherafelt having plenty of players who featured in March’s final at the Athletic Grounds.
Dungannon will have been disappointed by their run of games as well, despite winning the opening one against Abbey CBS.
St Colman’s pipped them at the post in a high-scoring second game, before they fell away at the end against St Michael’s, Enniskillen, eventually losing by 12 points.
And this from a St Patrick’s team that played some enterprising football two years ago to reach the Rannafast Cup decider, where they lost to Maghera in a high-scoring shoot-out.
In contrast to their Belfast opponents, the Academy have managed to accumulate decent scoring totals and have not suffered many heavy setbacks.
Should they survive the chop this week, there is every likelihood that they can solve some of their defensive frailties over the New Year break and prove a problem for any team in the knock-out stages.
I cannot see St Mary’s troubling them with enough scores to make this a nail-biter, never mind turn it into a shock win.
The Academy should be in next month’s draw for the fixtures at the end of January.
Patrician, Carrickmacross v St Patrick’s, Cavan (Friday, Corduff, 11.30am)
BOTH Patrician, Carrickmacross and St Patrick’s, Cavan have put in strong challenges over the past few MacRory campaigns, with Cavan collecting the title in 2015 after a 42-year wait.
They won the Danske Bank Rannafast Cup this time last year and are back into this year’s final.
So how did they find themselves bottom of Group A and now fighting for MacRory survival?
It could, however, have been so different if things had gone a little bit better last week.
On Tuesday, they led St Patrick’s, Maghera by three points going into injury-time and looked to be holding out for a win when Maghera missed a goal chance.
Yet Cavan allowed the Derry boys off the hook by conceding three very late points as the game ended a draw.
Three days later they scored a goal themselves to draw level with St Macartan’s in the first minute of added-time.
However, they couldn’t retain possession from the next play and allowed sub Gary Mohan in for goal.
Needless to say, a win followed by a draw last week would not have left them in the predicament they now find themselves.
It is also strange to see Patrician, Carrickmacross in the same predicament – although their first game against St Eunan’s perhaps provided a little in the way of insight into those problems.
Patrician went two goals up through Ryan Kennedy and Ryan McNulty but then conceded not one, but two penalties to trail by 2-3 to 2-1 at the break.
Then, during the course of the second half they picked up two red cards and slumped to a three-point defeat.
However, Carrickmacross recovered well in their remaining two games – a 3-7 to 3-5 win over Bessbrook, followed by an impressive 2-13 apiece draw with table-toppers St Patrick’s, Armagh.
Coming into the eliminator with that kind of form and the confidence it builds means that Patrician have to be favourites to remain in the competition – and Sean Jones has got just the individual brilliance to tilt a game in their favour.
