St Patrick’s, Maghera 1-12 St Mary’s, Belfast 2-6
A LATE goal from Paddy Quigg gave holders St Patrick's Maghera a winning start in their Danske Bank MacRory Cup tie with St Mary’s, CBGS in the Loup yesterday afternoon.
The physically stronger Derry side dominated for periods of the game with the midfield pairing of Anton Tohill and Oisin McWilliams and centre-forward Larry Kielt pretty effective.
However, St Mary’s managed to stay in touch through the pace of their attacks and they created more goal chances than their opponents.
St Mary’s had two goals disallowed as well as two other openings well saved by the Maghera goalie.
However, the city boys were slow out of the blocks and in getting to grips with Paddy Quigg who scored the opening four points, two from frees.
A 15th minute goal from Eoghan McCabe though tied the teams on 1-2 to 0-5 and they each scored three more points before the break.
Maghera hit the opening three points of the second half through Kielt, corner-back Paddy McCormick and Fearghal Higgins, but their progress was arrested by a goal from Paddy Doyle in the 43rd minute and it was score for score until Quigg fired home the winner in the 57th minute.
St Ronan’s, Lurgan 2-7 St Macartan’s, Monaghan 4-5
ST RONAN’S, Lurgan started and finished this Danske Bank MacRory Cup tie with a flourish, but in between St Macartan’s delivered four goals that were enough for the Sem to pick up their first points of the campaign.
Despite conceding an early goal to Jack Leneghan, Remy McKenna had St Macartan’s back on level terms at 1-1 each in the ninth minute with a fine strike.
However the same player got in for a cracking second goal just on the stroke of half-time to open up a 2-3 to 1-2 interval lead that stretched to 3-4 to 1-3 in the 38th minute when Robbie McAllister stroked home a penalty after Dean McGuigan was fouled in the area.
The Sem were now playing confident football and it was not a surprise in the 49th minute when Jack Gormley’s goal made it 4-5 to 1-4.
Conor Turbitt kick-started a mini-revival for St Ronan’s in the final 10 minutes with a point that was followed by two more from frees and then a goal from Tiarnan Kelly in the 57th minute that suggested there was still hope for them.
However, the Sem managed to close out the game to take their first win.
