Dean And Patrician Must Do It All Again

Sunday 09.02.2025

Buncrana Cup

Dean Maguirc and Patrician High School served up a very competitive Mc Larnon Cup final in Celtic Park on Sunday but in spite of the best efforts of both teams they could not be separated and will now have to do it all again later this week.

Both sides made two changes to their starting teams with the Tyrone school playing into the breeze in the first half. A fine move down the Dean’s right hand side created a goal chance after two minutes and Shea Munroe took advantage of the space to finish to the net.

Patrician refused to panic and a converted Peter Donnelly free added to a Cian Rafferty point left the minimum between the teams. Michael Mc Callen and Connolly swapped scores before Sean Donnelly pointed for the Dean to leave two points between the sides with fourteen minutes gone.

Dean Maguirc created two further chances of first half goals but spurned both. Patrician free taker Connolly added three points to his team’s tally while wing back Luke Poval was also on target for the Monaghan school. However the Dean matched them step for step and points from Padraig Donaghy, Sean Óg Teague, Shea Monroe and James Mc Callan helped send Dean Maguirc off at the break leading 1-6 to 0-7.

The opening ten minutes of the second half saw both sides add three points to their respective totals before points from Connolly and Harry Reilly put Patrician in front for the first time. With just over ten minutes remaining a long range effort from Shea Munroe had the sides level once more. Corner back Michael Gallagher, who was superb throughout, broke through the Patrician defence and was only denied a certain goal by an excellent save from goalkeeper Dion O’Gorman.

Ryan Mc Callan pointed to put the Dean one in front again before Conor Meehan burst forward to hit the equalising score for the Monaghan side with five minutes plus added time remaining.

Both sides had chances late in the game to win it before referee Enda Mallon sounded the final whistle;

Final score: Dean Maguirc 1-10, Patrician  High School 0-13