Academy In Father Davies Cup Action

Friday 02.12.2011

Club

St.Patricks Academy Dungannon go in search of Father Davies Cup glory on Saturday morning when they take on St.Patricks Keady in the final at Clonmore on Saturday morning. [11.00] Both these schools have had joy and heart-break in the Fr Davies Cup final in recent years.

St Patrick’s Keady have lost 4 finals in the past 10 seasons, only collecting one title – in February 2006 when they won the Armagh derby with St Catherine’s College.

The Academy lost the final in the following season, but bounced back to win in 2008 with a narrow victory over Our Lady’s Newry, and current midfielder Aisling Jordan was a young corner-forward that day. The Academy seemed to be heading for the final last year, when they finished runner-up in the league – but were caught cold by Garron Tower in the semi-final. They finished runner-up to Keady in this year’s league as well and were pushed all the way by St Colm’s Draperstown in the semi-final – 3-9 to 3-6.

The five Derrytresk players will be keen to bring more provincial medals to the club at the end of a week when the footballers are still in the festive mood. However they lost their opening fixture to Keady in earlier September and will go into the final as underdogs. Keady hadn’t a lot to spare earlier this week when they eventually played their semi-final with Loreto Coleraine.  They came through 2-4 to 0-4 with goals from Nicole Nugent and Catherine McCooey, neither of whom incidentally will start the final. However there is a strong team unit there, built around the Keady and Ballymacnabb sides that have contested all the under-age finals in Armagh.

There are 7 Ballymacnabb starters including the goalkeeper and the complete full-back line, while the Keady club supply the three half-backs – Caoimhe and Trea Shortt and captain Aoife Murphy. Many of the team were on the side that collected the Liatroim Fontenoys’ Cup down the school, including Jane Lavery and Michelle Morgan who both scored in that success.

The south Armagh girls have been the dominant force at this level and they will be favourites to emulate the hurlers who beat the Academy 0-15 to 1-8 in the Casement Cup final at Halloween.

St Patrick’s Academy : Megan  Fox, Shauna O’Hagan, Rebecca Barker, Aoife Corr, Méabh McHugh, Cara Fitzgerald, Aileen Fitzgerald, Caoimhe Rafferty, Aisling Jordan, Jane Canavan, Cora McNulty, Catherine Casey, Niamh McErlean, Pauline Barker, Siún Devlin. Subs : Orla Foley, Anna McCann, Áine McElroy, Amy Weir, Áine McGready, Brónagh McMullan, Áine Palmer