St Pat’s Academy pull through derby tussle

St Patrick’s Academy 1-12  St Joseph’s Donaghmore 1-11

ST Patrick’s Academy Dungannon have qualified for the MacRory Cup final for the first time in nine years with a hard-earned one-point victory over St Joseph’s in front of a bumper crowd against St Joseph’s Donaghmore on Saturday afternoon in Carrickmore.

There was a huge amount of interest leading into this game for very obvious reasons – only four miles separate the schools while St Joseph’s Donaghmore were bidding to reach the MacRory Cup final in their debut season in the competition having won last year’s MacLarnon Cup.

St Joseph’s are blessed with some of the county’s most promising underage talent like Donaghmore trio Noah Grimes, Conor O’Neill and Joey Clarke, all of whom have starred for Tyrone at underage level. While the MacRory was uncharted territory, it certainly wouldn’t have been the shock of the century had they made the final, and indeed they seemed to be many people’s favourites heading into Saturday’s game.

It didn’t turn out to be their day, however.

St Patrick’s Academy took the spoils with a one-point victory and it was evident how much it meant to the school at the final whistle as their supporters poured onto the pitch to greet their heroes.

They’d been patchy enough in the quarter-final against Patrician of Carrickmacross, eventually prevailing on penalties, but this was a much-improved – a much more well-rounded – performance from Ciaran Gourley’s side.

They’d done their homework on the St Joseph’s boys and their superior physicality around the middle third was a major factor in their victory. Dillon O’Neill, Sean Hughes and Owen O’Neill are big lumps of lads, but they have plenty of football in them and they made life difficult throughout for their neighbours up the road.

St Joseph’s will have some regrets. There wasn’t much between the two teams footballing-wise but they were guilty of being a shade over-elaborate in the first-half and despite having plenty of possession trailed by 1-5 to 0-6 at the break.

Manager Niall Kelly evidently had the same thoughts and they played with much more directness when the game restarted, getting their rewards with a 41st minute goal from livewire forward Noah Grimes who latched onto a long-ball from his club colleague Conor O’Neill.

It seemed that this was it, St Joseph’s had turned the screw and the game was there for the taking but that’s not how it transpired.

St Pat’s dug their heels in and went for the jugular, winning a stream of frees that were invariably converted by Galbally lad Sean Hughes.

The referee Barry McMenamin was fussy at times and seemed reluctant to let the game flow, but that wasn’t St Pat’s problem and they’ve now set up a hugely appetising MacRory Cup showdown against Omagh CBS in a repeat of the 2009 decider (a game adorned by future Tyrone footballers like Niall Morgan Peter Harte and Ronan O’Neill). On that occasion they came up trumps by a single point and it’s fair to say they’d take your hand off for a similar outcome in a fortnight’s time in the Athletic Grounds.

St Joseph’s opened the scoring through their dangerous corner-forward Joseph Corrigan after an attack down the left flank, a bit of a recurring theme from their first-half showing. Liam McGeary, influential throughout and always showing for the ball, responded in kind for the Dungannon-based school before a smattering of frees on a blustery day in Carrickmore.

The next point from play came in the 15th minute as Owen O’Neill nailed a fine point leaving it 0-4 to 0-3 in St Patrick’s favour.

It was dogged enough stuff and Noah Grimes, who was having a tight running battle with corner-back Conall Morgan, managed to win a free which was converted by Corrigan.

They grabbed another score from Conor O’Neill before St Patrick’s pounced for their first and only goal of the game, a long dropping ball gobbled up by Lorcan Hegarty, who coolly swivelled and found the net. St Joseph’s retorted with the final point of the half but St Patrick’s had the cushion of a 1-5 to 0-6 lead at the break and deservedly so as they had played the more efficient football.

>body2text<It seemed as if St Joseph’s had the most room for improvement but it was St Patrick’s who started the second-half the stronger with two frees from the ever-reliable Sean Hughes.

The intensity had ratcheted up a notch though and Noah Grimes, so dangerous on the ball, popped over a point and not long thereafter had the ball in the back of the net.

St Joseph’s were motoring along nicely at this stage and tagged on further scores, including a super point converted by Corrigan after a flying counter-attack, to leave the game perfectly poised at 1-9 apiece heading into the final quarter.

In theory St Joseph’s had the momentum but St Patrick’s weren’t going down without a fight and laid the platform for their eventual victory by re-establishing a foothold in the middle sector and driving hard at the St Joseph’s defence.

Liam McGeary was playing great stuff up front and won two frees which were duly converted by Hughes, while Conall Sheehy landed a brilliant point in between times.

They led by 1-12 to 1-9 with 57 minutes on the clock and it looked like the game was theirs.  St Joseph’s didn’t throw in the towel and mustered two late points, one a soccer-style effort from Eoghan O’Neill when the ball had been played dangerously across goal and the other a point from Darragh Donnelly in literally the final seconds of the match.

St Patrick’s had done enough and the contrasting scenes of jubliation and deep disappointment at the final whistle said it all about the significance of this particular encounter.

The Scorers

St Patrick’s Academy
Sean Hughes (0-8f), Lorcan Hegarty (1-0), Conall Sheehy, Owen O’Neill, Conor McCool and Liam McGeary (0-1 each)
St Joseph’s Donaghmore
Noah Grimes (1-2), Joseph Corrigan (0-5, 0-4f), Leo Hughes, Conor O’Neill, Eoghan O’Neill and Darragh Donnelly (0-1 each)

The Teams
St Patrick’s Academy
Naoise Quinn,Conall Morgan, Luke Neeson, Matthew Quinn, Conor Holmes, Sean Hughes, Dillon O’Neill, Owen O’Neill, Patrick McGeary, Lorcan Hegarty, Conall Sheehy, Davin McKeown,Conor McCool, Finn Spence, Liam McGeary. Subs: Darragh Devlin for Holmes, James Mulgrew for Hegarty
St Joseph’s Donaghmore
Sean Kennedy, Caolann Quinn, James Rafferty, Tegan Burns, Jude McNally, Joey Clarke, James McCarthy, Conor O’Neill, Fionn McHugh, Leo Hughes, Noah Grimes, Eoghan O’Neill, Darragh Donaghy, Mattie McNally, Joseph Corrigan. Subs: Donncha O’Neill for McCarthy

Referee: Barry McMenamin (Cavan)