fonaCAB Ulster Minor Club Football Tournament at St Paul’s GAC, Belfast: Bellaghy Wolfe Tones (Derry) 1-17 Inniskeen Grattans (Monaghan) 1-4
Bellaghy set up a St Stephen’s Day semi-final showdown against St Eunan’s, Letterkenny after sweeping aside the challenge of Inniskeen yesterday in the fonaCAB Ulster minor club football tournament at St Paul’s GAC, Belfast.
The Grattans were still in the contest at the break after a Dylan Mulholland goal and points from Padraig McGahon and Sean Jones put a misleading look on the scoreboard, with Bellaghy having notched seven points without reply in the opening 23 minutes.
However, the Derry side outscored their opponents by 1-9 to 0-2 in the second half, Paul Cassidy with the goal for the Wolfe Tones.
Bellaghy boss Damian Cassidy saw the game as perfect preparation for St Eunan’s on St Stephen’s Day.
“I knew they were going to bring a more physical performance that what we had against Dunloy. That would be very typical of Monaghan football which is on a real crest of a wave at the minute. There is a lot of quality in their football but they bring a physical edge to the game and are very uncompromising in how they play the game,” Cassidy said.
“We were delighted to get that to be honest because we needed that type of physical contest to prepare us for St Eunans in the next stage of the competition.
“I’m very happy with that performance. We went through a spell in the first when we lost ourselves for five minutes and they capitalised, but I thought in the second half after the first two or three minutes we just stepped up a level of football.”
Bellaghy, who impressed in their preliminary round win over Dunloy, continued where they left off with Conleth McShane splitting the posts after just 15 seconds. Charlie Diamond and Lorcan Spier accounted for the next five points between them for a 0-6 to no score lead after 18 minutes, with Cassidy raising a white flag for Bellaghy’s seventh unanswered point of the day.
Then came Inniskeen’s purple patch. Jones and Andrew Woods combined to set up Mulholland for the game’s first goal, the corner forward volleying Woods’s hand pass to the net on 25 minutes. Just two separated the sides when Jones and McGahon pointed but Diamond settled Bellaghy nerves before the short whistle after being set up by a superb cross-field ball from Spier.
Leading by 0-8 to 1-2 at the break, Bellaghy put the game to bed within 10 minutes of the restart. McShane and Spier added points before Cassidy extended the lead to eight points with Bellaghy’s only goal of the game. Tiernan Cassidy had initially saved well from Ronan Lee but Cassidy was on hand to fire home the rebound for a 1-10 to 1-3 lead.
A run of 1-6 unanswered was halted when Woods converted a ’45’ after Jones had forced Inniskeen goalkeeper Daire McErlean into action on 47 minutes. The Grattans were then reduced to 14 men when Christopher Hanratty saw red for a second bookable offence but the game was already well over for the Monaghan men.
Three more points from Spier brought his total to 0-8 for the 60 minutes with Inniskeen’s Jarlath McGahon completing the day’s scoring.
Bellaghy: D McErlean; R McFaul, C McLarnon, J Diamond; P McErlean, C Milne, O Lee; C McShane (0-2), K Friel; O McErlean, L Spier (0-8, 2f), L Brady; C Diamond (0-5, 2f), P Cassidy (1-2), R Lee
Subs: O McClafferty for O Lee (54), S Turner for P Cassidy (56), E Lee for C Milne (59), F Murray for L Spier (61)
Inniskeen: T Cassidy; J McGahon (0-1), C Hanratty, C Quigley; P Burns, S Hanratty, C Downey; A Woods (0-1, 45), C Gernon; J Casey-Hoey, S Jones (0-1), A McShane; D Mulholland (1-0), P McGahon (0-1), G Burns
Subs: J Lynch for P McGahon (42, bc), D McDonald for D Mulholland (58), A Jones for G Burns (58), C McMahon for C Downey (59)
Referee: B Toland (Antrim)
'My Dad and uncles won this'
'My Dad and uncles played in this Tournament and won it in 1994' - Bellaghy's Conleth McShane speaking after beating Inniskeen in the Quarter-finals of the fonaCAB Ulster Minor Football Tournament, supported by Belfast City Council.
The Derry champions won by 1-17 to 1-4 at St Paul's in Belfast with a goal from full-forward Paul Cassidy in the second-half.
'It's always in the back of your head that they won it and we want to emulate them', says Conleth.
Bellaghy will now play St Eunan's from Donegal in the semi-finals on December 26.
Video by Jerome Quinn Media.
