AIB Ulster Club Junior Football Championship semi-final: Rock St Patrick’s (Tyrone) 1-12 Newtownbutler First Fermanaghs (Fermanagh) 0-13
ROCK returned to the Ulster junior final with this victory over Newtownbutler.
The 2014 champions were in uncompromising form and dictated exchanges from the off in St Tiernach’s Park.
However, they did have to weather a late rally by the First Fermanaghs.
In the first half Aidan McGarrity gathered 1-3, opening his tally early on from the dead ball after Conor McCreesh won the free. That was to be a recurring theme in the first 30 with McCreesh laying on score after score.
The Erne champions got it back level after three minutes with a free from Jarlath Jackman.
The sides then swapped scores again, Eamon Ward and James Connolly the men obliging. There were warning signs there though for Newtownbutler, with Ward’s score coming after Jarlath Jackman and Gary Mullaney combined to scramble the ball off the line.
Two more frees from Aidan McGarrity saw Rock take a doublescores lead into the second quarter.
They had another close call for a goal before they finally got the green flag they had been threatening. Again McCreesh claimed the long ball in. This time he passed back to Aidan McGarrity and the number 14’s shot hit the net with the help of a deflection on the way.
That left it at 1-4 to 0-2 with 18 minutes played. Newtownbutler mustered a good answering point from Brendan McBrien and when Jarlath Jackman landed a much needed free from 30 metres, there was just a goal in it.
However, Rock reeled off three points before the interval to give them a five-point half time advantage. First Ryan Crilly landed a lovely effort off the outside of the boot, then Eamon Ward arrowed over a shot which could easily have gone under as over the bar.
The closing action of the half saw Padraig Ward and Jarlath Jackman (free) exchanging scores to leave it Rock 1-7 Newtownbutler 0-5 at the turnover.
It was more pedestrian fare for much of the second half, with two McGarrity frees making it 1-9 to 0-6 as the game moved into the final quarter. It was a helter skelter finish though. Points from Brendan McBrien (0-3) and Jason Flanagan left a goal in it with five minutes left to play.
Rock responded with points from McGarrity and McCreesh, but the Fermanagh champions answered those with scores from Frank Mulligan, Shane Leonard and Jackman to set up a nerve jangling finish.
Newtownbutler pushed hard for the goal, and with Niall McKenna playing eight minutes rather than the indicated three minutes of added time they were given every chance to get it.
It never arrived though, and so it’s Rock and Blackhill pairing off for the Ulster showpiece, the fourth between Tyrone and Monaghan champions since the competition’s inception.
