Danske Bank Leonard Cup final: St Patrick’s, Maghera v St Mary’s CBGS, Belfast (Wednesday, Ballymena, 1.30pm)
ANOTHER Grade A final and, yet again, St Patrick’s, Maghera have their eye on silverware.
The Derry school is in its fifth final in five weeks, between hurling and football, and are bidding for a fifth title, following success in football in the Oisin McGrath, Rannafast and Corn na nÓg and hurling’s MacNamee Cup.
On Wednesday, they face off with St Mary’s CBGS, Belfast and are favourites to win the Danske Bank Leonard Cup having collected MacNamee and Gallagher titles with this same group of hurlers over the past two seasons.
Although they remain unbeaten in this season’s competition, there were periods during last Tuesday’s semi-final against Cross and Passion Ballycastle when they looked quite average.
Of course, when the forwards have hit the net four times in the opening 12 minutes, there was sure to be some complacency in the ranks. Ballycastle gradually worked their way back into the game and closed the gap to just two points with nine minutes remaining. But then Enda Downey engineered an opening for Sean Martin to score a decisive seventh goal and it was game over.
Still, St Mary’s will feel they are in with a chance as Ballycastle scored 3-12 against them. Downey, along with Seamus McKenna, is looking to add to the Rannafast Cup medal they won in Armagh 10 days ago, while Corn na nÓg dual-players Shea Cassidy and Jamie Duggan are also in search of a second medal.
McKenna, in midfield alongside Paddy Quinn, and Downey, a menace up front, are big players in this more than useful all round side, in which Rannafast Cup sub PJ McAleese is a huge presence at centre-half back.
St Mary’s lost to Maghera in the group stages and looked to be on the way out of the competition last Friday week when they trailed St Killian’s Garron Tower by four points with just five minutes left on the clock. Somehow, they dug themselves out of the hole, helped by a Caolan Ó Duifín goal, to win by 3-9 to 4-4.
Liam McCloskey and Daniel Murray have been consistently solid in defence for the challengers. Caolan McKernan is an industrious midfielder, while up front Dannan McKeogh has been accurate from placed balls.
Overall, they are a hard working outfit who have gradually improved as the competition has gone on. However, they will be an outside bet to land the trophy as Maghera’s silver winning streak looks set to continue.
TEAM NEWS
St Patrick’s: D McGilligan, D McGuigan, C Glass, R McGill, H O'Donnell, PJ McAleese, R McPeake, S McKenna, P Quinn, C Higgins, E Mac Oscair, S Martin, E Downey, F McGrath, S Cassidy; Subs: S Óg Deighan, T Devlin, E Quinn, S Convery
St Mary’s: C Slack, M McEnhill, L McCluskey, T McKenna, R Murray, D Murray, D Churchill, C McKernan (capt), E Trainor, P Smyth, D McKeogh, C O'Diffin, O May, M Gough, R Crossan; Subs: C McShane, D Murphy, J Burns, M Murray, E Monaghan, F Austin, D McGowan, P Lowe, A Mullan, P Braniff, J Devlin, D Irvine
