Danske Bank MacRory Cup Group B: St Patrick’s, Maghera 2-9 Holy Trinity, Cookstown 0-8
THE outcome of this game in Castledawson was in the balance in the third quarter when a key moment in the contest arrived.
Having hit the opening three scores of the second half to close the gap to three, Holy Trinity had Mark Devlin straight red-carded and they lost all the momentum that they had built up, the winners taking full advantage to bag their second goal shortly afterwards.
It was a cagey opening 10 minutes with Maghera establishing a 0-3 to 0-1 lead thanks to points from Alex Doherty, Shea Murray and Fintan Bradley, with Tiernan Quinn on target for Holy Trinity.
At the end of the opening quarter, full-forward Doherty struck for the first of his two goals to put Maghera in the driving seat.
Daithi McLaughlin and Doherty traded points with Tiarnan Mackle and Devlin to leave the scoreboard reading 1-6 to 0-3 at the short whistle.
Maghera had lots of possession on the restart without making it count and instead it was Holy Trinity who made the most of the chances that came their way with Quinn, Mackle and Shane Murphy all raising white flags.
At that stage they lost Devlin after he had disputed a referee’s call too vigorously and the whole pattern of the game changed.
Doherty opened Maghera’s second half account with another major and they never looked back.
To their credit Holy Trinity battled gamely with 14 men, Mackle and Quinn adding points, but those scores were cancelled out at the other end by Tiarnan McHugh, Doherty and half-back Eunan Mulholland as Maghera ran out comfortable winners in the end.
Maghera and St Macartans, Monaghan will meet on Tuesday in the final game of the group, with the winner going into the MacCormack Cup semi-finals as well as the last eight of the MacRory Cup.
This week also sees the four sudden death play-offs, the losers of which will bow out of this season’s Danske Bank MacRory Cup.
The two Danske Bank MacCormack Cup semi-finals have been put back until the second week of January.
Danske Bank Corn Loch an Iuir semi-final:
St Ronan’s, Lurgan v St Malachy’s, Castlewellan (Monday, St Colman’s College, 1pm)
ST Eunan’s, Letterkenny are already through to the Danske Bank Corn Loch an Iúir final and by 3pm on Monday they will know their opponents.
There are two ways to look at St Ronan’s after they breezed through their group games – either they are excellent for this level of competition or they have not been tested yet. What other conclusion could be drawn when they scored 27 goals and 47 points in three games?
Obviously their attack has seen the most action and Rogan McVeigh and Callum Wilson have emerged as the top scorers, well supported by the midfield pairing of Ethan McKenna and Padraig Gowdy.
The further they progress in the competition, however, the more the value of defenders Aidan Cassidy, Eoin Lennon and Charlie Casey will be assessed.
St Malachy’s have not been as impressive and, indeed, opened with a heavy loss to Holy Trinity, Cookstown.
However, they recovered well to beat St Paul’s, Bessbrook and then finished the group with a convincing win over St Louis, Ballymena.
In the quarter-final, they played a very good first half to build up a strong lead against Patrician, Carrickmacross. However, in the second half it was their defence that came through with credit on a 9-8 to 4-11 scoreline.
Key players that day were defenders Caolom Smith and Shea Stratton. The midfield pairing of Christopher Kelly McEvoy and Connaire Magorrian should have a great battle with McKenna and Gowdy, while up front the majority of scores have come from the McCrickard cousins – Dara and Ronan from Liatroim Fontenoys.
St Ronan’s have been consistent through the group stages but haven’t had a game in three weeks, while St Malachy’s have improved in each outing and the extra game, the quarter-final, will have brought them on again.
It should therefore be an interesting game.
