Football

St Patrick’s, Maghera and St Patrick’s, Armagh battle it out for MacCormack Cup final berth

St Patrick’s, Maghera will look to the likes of Eunan Mulholland (right) to anchor their bid for a MacCormack Cup final berth when they take on St Patrick’s, Armagh in a semi-final encounter in Cookstown
St Patrick’s, Maghera will look to the likes of Eunan Mulholland (right) to anchor their bid for a MacCormack Cup final berth when they take on St Patrick’s, Armagh in a semi-final encounter in Cookstown St Patrick’s, Maghera will look to the likes of Eunan Mulholland (right) to anchor their bid for a MacCormack Cup final berth when they take on St Patrick’s, Armagh in a semi-final encounter in Cookstown

Danske Bank MacCormack Cup semi-final: St Patrick’s, Maghera v St Patrick’s, Armagh (Monday, MUSA, Cookstown, 6.15pm)

ALTHOUGH St Patrick’s, Maghera have collected four Danske Bank MacRory Cup titles since 2003 – the year the MacCormack Cup was introduced to decide the winners of the pre-Christmas league section of the competition – they have never managed to double up and win both trophies in the same year.

Only Omagh CBS and St Ronan’s, Lurgan have achieved that feat, with St Ronan’s defeating Maghera in last season’s MacCormack final before going on to win the MacRory in March.

With the business end of this season’s MacRory Cup just a matter of weeks away, the MacCormack semi-finals should provide excellent preparation for sides who have aspirations of adding the MacRory in mid-March.

Maghera are one of those teams. A runaway victory in the Rannafast Cup with the same squad two years ago puts them right up there amongst the favourites.

Because of involvement in the Mageean Cup final, they couldn’t start their league campaign until November 20, but inside the next 10 days they topped their group with two wins and a draw.

Admittedly, they looked a little ring-rusty in the first game with Cavan, two late points from Enda Downey and then one deep in injury-time from Eunan Mulholland rescuing a draw – but they still produced passages of good football.

There was continued improvement through the next two games with Holy Trinity, Cookstown and St Macartan’s – which accumulated a scoring difference of 20 points.

The Bellaghy boys in their ranks then carried on that form to take the Ulster minor club title last week, with Conleth McShane immense at midfield.

Armagh’s autumn has been more low-key and their games spread over the scheduled six-week period, but they have accumulated almost identical stats to Maghera – two comfortable wins and a draw and a scoring difference of plus-17 points.

They opened with a devastating performance against Bessbrook and were already assured of a place in the MacCormack Cup semis when they faced Patrician, Carrickmacross in Crossmaglen at the end of November.

That game ended in a draw, but Armagh also used it to test out a few of their fringe players and management will be happy enough with the outcome – although they will still rely on the mercurial Michael Conroy at midfield, as well as Dillon Horsfield, Tom Weir, Justin Kieran and Mícheál McGleenan for the big plays.

A win or loss today will not knock either team out of contention for the MacRory Cup, but it will certainly help both management teams assess where they are in terms of preparation for the quarter-finals in early February. 

Maghera to edge it.

The second semi-final between St Michael’s, Enniskillen and Omagh CBS is scheduled for Wednesday in Trillick at 1.30pm.