By 
THE Abbey boys, located at two separate schools either end of the province, are blocking the ‘road’ to a potential all-Tyrone MacRory Cup Final this Sunday.
First up, St Patrick’s Academy Dungannon collide with Abbey Donegal, while that evening Omagh CBS come up against Abbey CBS Newry in the second semi-final. That tie was initially scheduled for tonight (Thursday) but has been postponed due to a waterlogged surface at the planned Stewartstown venue.
A Red Hand derby showdown in the decider in a fortnight’s time would whet the appetite no doubt but it is far from a guarantee and Omagh joint manager Pat McNabb warns that the Newry side they will encounter will be far removed from the team they easily dispatched with in the earlier phase of the competition.
“ We played them in the group stages and beat them reasonably well though they bounced back and had some terrific results since. A lot of their fellas were involved in last year’s Rannafast Final against us too.
“ I feel they are a much more dangerous animal now than they were earlier in the season. They beat Maghera who have set the standards over the past 20/30 years so that says it all.”
Omagh appear to be peaking at just the right time themselves, hitting five goals a fortnight ago in the quarter-final against St Patrick’s Armagh, four of those being tucked away in a barnstorming first quarter.
The Brothers had star performers across the field at a frosty Fintona, with their challenge superbly spearheaded by captain Michael McNamee. McNabb was understandably delighted with their display.
“ They beat us in Round One and they scored four goals that night. We were intent on getting on the front foot from the first whistle. It was the same in fairness the last time we played them but in the second half that day we started to make mistakes and gave the ball away. They were able to capitalise so we knew they had a threat if we gave them that opportunity.
“ We didn’t want to allow them to get into the game so we pushed from the start. We got key chances early on and were able to get the goals.”
While Omagh went on a goal rampage in the first half the manager gleaned more satisfaction from their assured second half performance as they comfortably held Armagh at arm’s length.
“ They’ll be disappointed probably with the way it finished up but the good start with the goals gave us a platform. In fairness they responded well with a couple of two pointers.
“ We were eight up the last day and they came back so with being seven up this time we were under no illusions in the dressing room at half-time that the game was far from over.
“ Up to the midway stage of the second half they had only scored one point from a free so that was pleasing, we were able to control the game and not give them much to go on. We defended well as a unit and kept a clean sheet. So there was a lot of aspects of our game we were very happy with.”
McNabb added that the post-Christmas quarter-final assignment in the MacRory Cup usually proved the most precarious for any side given players were just coming back into the fold after the holiday break.
“ I always feel the quarter-final is the tricky one. You can get knocked us just a few days into the new year and you never feel you got a real chance to build momentum.
“ Over the years a lot of good teams have been toppled at the quarter-final stage because you are coming in a bit cold after Christmas. We went over that with the boys and had them warned so we were delighted just to get past Armagh.
“ We had a difficult week with boys being sick, the likes of Peter Colton, and a lot of injuries in the camp too, broken hands and thumbs, so another couple of weeks gives us a chance to get another one or two back. Hopefully we will be in a stronger position for the next day.”