Danske Bank MacRory Cup: Tuesday, 2pm in Pearse Óg Armagh: St Patrick’s, Maghera v St Patrick’s, Cavan
FINALLY the team that is widely fancied to win the Danske Bank MacRory Cup takes to the field for the first time in the same week that the schedule of group games is due to be completed.
Their involvement in the Mageean Cup right through to last Tuesday’s final is the main reason for the delay.
Hurling usually slows their football start, but the Mageean had to be postponed for more than a fortnight and Maghera now have to play their three group games in little more than a week starting with their Cavan namesakes today.
Cavan have only fielded once and were disappointing in a 1-10 to 0-7 defeat to Holy Trinity Cookstown a fortnight ago.
They were seven points in arrears at the break and then conceded a goal on the re-start making their task almost impossible.
They had good performances from Paul McCabe and Cian Boylan in defence and Darryl McGurn and Jack Treanor in attack and will have used the past couple of weeks well to improve on that first outing.
Maghera were very impressive in winning the Rannafast Cup final two seasons ago and have a strong all-round panel.
Conleth McShane, Daithi McLaughlin, Alex Doherty and Eunan Mulholland were all key players in last year’s campaign that ran aground in Bellaghy during a derby semi-final with St Mary’s, Magherafelt when Maghera conceded six goals.
With Sean Marty Lockhart and Martin McConnell in charge you would expect a strong emphasis on attack, but they will also be tight at the back, with the return of Tiarnan McHugh another plus in their attacking strategy.
They may still be finding out their best team, but Maghera should still be too strong for Cavan and get their campaign off to a winning start.
There are eight more MacRory Cup games spread over the rest of this week with Maghera back in action against Holy Trinity Cookstown next Monday.
