Danske Bank MacLarnon Cup final: Holy Trinity, Cookstown v Patrician High, Carrickmacross (Thursday, 11.15am, the Athletic Grounds, Armagh)
LAST year, Patrician High, Carrickmacross entered the Danske Bank MacLarnon Cup final as favourites, but at no time over the 60 minutes looked likely to wrestle the title away from their county rivals Our Lady's, Castleblayney.
Twelve months on, they again are favourites going into the final, but this time there appears to be more substance to their claims. They are unbeaten throughout the competition and only once, in the quarter-final against St Mary's, Belfast, have they looked in any way threatened by an opponent.
In that game at the start of February, they seemed to be coasting at half-time with a 0-5 to 0-0 lead against a dogged Belfast challenge. Then, they got hit with goals and, although they recovered to win by 1-11 to 3-3, there seemed to be a bit of panic in their play when they were under pressure.
There was no sense of panic, however, in their semi-final against St Louis', Ballymena, a game they led from start to finish, with a Shane Duffy penalty goal in the first half and a late goal from substitute Andrew Woods sealing a 2-11 to 0-8 victory.
The only surprise in the match was the failure of top-scorer David Garland to hit the target. Some credit must go to the Ballymena defence for having their homework done on the Donaghmoyne Fontenoy, who captains Carrick and who notched 1-3 in the previous round. But his team-mates stepped up to the mark and they enter the final in buoyant mood.
Eclipsing the Danske Bank Rannafast Cup back in November with controlled performances all the way through has brought a certain level of confidence to all the football sides coming through in Patrician and those Rannafast stars like Liam Óg Murray, Kieran Slavin, Sean Burns, and Andrew Woods are capable of leading from the front in the MacLarnon. They also have six players from last year's team on a mission to make sure they don't end up with the same feeling they had last St Patrick's Day.
Final opponents Holy Trinity, Cookstown are battle-hardened by this stage in the competition. They drew the defending champions Castleblayney in the quarter-final and came through with 4-9 to 1-12 win, after leading by 3-4 to 0-1 at the break.
They could easily have slipped up in the semi-final when they fell six points down at the three-quarter stage against St Columb's, Derry. However, Conan McLernon slammed home a penalty soon after and, with David Mulgrew's influence on the game increasing, they forced extra-time and came through 1-17 to 2-12.
Mulgrew and McLernon are undoubtedly key men in the team, but they have had good support in their unbeaten run to the decider. Shane McNally and Thomas Donnelly have been strong in defence with Rian McLernon coming through regularly for scores, while the Derrylaughan centre to the attack (Tomas Carney and Paul Donnelly) has worried most defences.
Cookstown are in their first final at this level, while Carrickmacross have experience from big occasions such as last year's MacLarnon heartbreak and November's Rannafast success to help them settle into this final.
Patrician followed St Macartan's to Rannafast success before Christmas and should now follow another Monaghan school to MacLarnon silverware.
TEAM NEWS
Patrician: J Kirk; C Rowe, K McMenamin, C Martin; S Finnegan, K Slavin, F Hannerty; D Connolly, L óg Murray; R McDonald, A Kieran, R O'Connor; D Garland (capt.), G McAneany, A Woods; Subs: S Woods, C McNulty, D Rudden, S Duffy, E Walsh, C Marron, S McEneany, S Russell, T Marron, K Hand, D Leegan, F O'Callaghan, S Burns, S Kindlon.
Holy Trinity: B Gallagher; D Kielt, S McNally, M Rafferty; R McLernon, T Donnelly, M McGuigan; J Devlin, D Mulgrew (capt.); S O'Driscoll, T Carney, G O'Neill; C Mallaghan, P Donnelly, C McLernon; Subs: T McVey, S O'Hare, C Lowe, E McCourt, C O'Neill, E óg Teague, A Coney, R Maguire, T Toner, P Coney, A Moore, J Devlin, A McKenna, O Corrigan.
