Academy Bow Out

Thursday 27.02.2020

Club

St Patrick’s Academy Dungannon 2-7 St Patrick’s Maghera 3-13
St.Patricks Academy Dungannon bowed out of this season’s Danske Bank MacRory Cup when they lost out to St.Pats Maghera in an entertaining semi final at Loup on Wednesday evening.

Trailing by six points two superbly executed goals from corner forward Sean Cowan brought the Academy back to level terms in the third quarter and at that stage they had their tails up. Three wides as well as a dropped effort short saw chances go a begging to take the lead and after having defender Oisin McHugh black carded their challenge faded. Keeper Fintan Coney conceded a penalty and was red carded with Sean Kearney making no mistake from the spot as the winners tagged on 2-3 without reply to qualify for the St.Patricks Day decider against either St.Pats Armagh and St.Colmans, that second semi final taking place at the Athletic Grounds on Friday night.

Wing back James McGurk opened the scoring with a point from distance and in the 8th minute the same player hit the net after being picked out by a sublime pass from full forward Enda Downey. Shane Donnelly opened Dungannon’s account but it was Maghera who were making all the running with Matthew Downey, Sean Kearney and Enda Downey all adding to their advantage. Luke Donnelly knocked over a Dungannon free while Cowan contributed a brace of well taken points but efforts from Jamie Duggan and Lee Brady left St.Pats Maghera 1-6 to 0-5 in front at the short whistle.

Matthew Downey and Shea Daly traded points on the restart before the former hit a great score from play from out on the right wing. Luke Donnelly responded with a free for Dungannon before Enda and Matthew Downey both registered to leave it 1-10 to 0-7 by the 37th minute. The Academy were in trouble but then Cowan hit a brilliant goal and in the 41st minute he repeated the dose to level matters.

The momentum was now with the Academy but they failed to make the most of it with those wides. A Kearney free gave Maghera a lead that they were never to lose and in the 47th minute the same player found PJ McAleese with a great ball and the corner back found the net. At that stage McHugh was black carded and there was no way back for the Academy. With four minutes left to play Coney was sent off and Kearney converted the resulting penalty before centre half forward Ethan Doherty brought the scoring to a close.

St Patrick’s Maghera : Z Scullion, P McLoughlin, A McGuckin, PJ McAleese (1-0), L Brady (0-1), R McFaul, J McGurk (1-1), S McKenna, T Higgins, J Duggan (0-1), E Doherty (0-1), M Downey (0-4, 0-2 M), S Kearney (1-3, 1-0 pen, 1F, 1M), E Downey (0-2, 1F, 1M), S O’Neill. Subs: C Milne for P McLoughlin, C Higgins for S O’Neill, S Murray for S O’Neill

St Patrick’s Academy: F Coney, A Toner, C Begley, G Teague, S McLaughlin, O McHugh, P Kearney, S Daly (0-1), M O’Neill, E Donnelly, S McCann, S Donnelly (0-1), S Cowan (2-3), R Carmichael, L Donnelly (0-2, 2F). Subs: C Skeffington for C Begley, R McHugh for McLaughlin, H Morgan for E Donnelly, N McMurray for McCann

Referee: M McNally (Monaghan)