Sigerson Cup round one: St Mary’s University College, Belfast v Dublin Institute of Technology (tomorrow, Galbally, 2pm)
THE Galbally Pearses club in Tyrone hosts this afternoon’s Sigerson Cup round one clash between St Mary’s and DIT.
The Lurgylea Road grounds are the home club of ‘Ranch’ manager Paddy Tally and the former Down and Derry assistant manager will hope for better luck in familiar surroundings today than his team enjoyed two years ago when St Mary’s lost a thrilling clash against DIT in Coolock by a single point.
DIT were reigning Sigerson champions back then (they won the competition for the first and only time in 2013) but lost their crown after defeat to Ulster University at the quarter-final stage.
St Mary’s have five survivors from that game – the Johnston brothers Ryan and Jerome, Peter Carragher, Aidan McGarrity and Dermot McBride - and begin their Sigerson campaign on the back of one win out of three in the Dr McKenna Cup.
Results aside, the competition was a very useful one for the Falls Road university-college and their success was a 2-6 to 0-8 win against Donegal.
There were also battling defeats against Fermanagh (1-13 to 0-14) and Down (3-20 to 2-14) and after a quick look at the 2016 roster and it becomes clear why St Mary’s were able to stand toe-to-toe with inter-county sides.
The spine of the side is very strong from McBride (Tyrone) at full-back, through centre half-back Niall McParland (Down), midfield pair Brian og McGilligan (Derry) and Carragher (Armagh) to Tyrone’s Conaill McCann at full-forward.
To complement them Tally can call on Kilcoo’s Johnston brothers, Derry panellist Niall Toner and Antrim’s Paddy McAleer, Paddy McBride and Matthew Fitzpatrick.
Tally is sweating over the fitness of Ryan Johnston after he limped off during Down’s NFL loss to Donegal on Saturday night, but says his side “have a chance” this afternoon.
“We have prepared well and we know our own strengths at this stage,” he said.
“We have played a fair bit of football together through the Ryan Cup and then the McKenna Cup which is great.
“We had most of our squad together for the three matches in the McKenna Cup so we have a fair idea of what we’re about now but we’re still under no illusions of how difficult it’s going to be and we just have to perform.
“If we get a performance out of the players and they really are prepared to work very hard they have a chance, but at this moment that’s all they have and we just have to make sure it happens for us.”
Meanwhile, like St Mary’s, DIT had one eye-catching win in Leinster’s O’Byrne Cup. The Dublin-based students beat Offaly 2-11 to 0-10 in their second game of the competition.
Killian O’Gara (younger brother of Dublin full-forward Eoghan) hit 1-3 in that game and Ryan Connolly scored the other goal while Liam Irwin chipped in with two points.
Their other two results weren’t so impressive – there was a 0-24 to 1-7 loss to Kildare in their first match and a 3-19 to 1-9 defeat at the hands of Louth in their last.
The side has a sprinkling of inter-county talent throughout including Dublin All-Ireland winner Kevin O’Brien and Lucan Sarsfields midfielder Emmet O Conghaile, an U21 All-Ireland winner in 2014, Cavan’s Enda Flanagan and Louth’s Conor Grimes.
