Battling Holy Cross Strabane miss out on a provincial title

Coliaste Oiriall 1-9  Holy Cross Strabane 0-2

HOLY Cross Strabane missed out on the Ulster Schools McCormack Cup title against hosts Coliaste Oirial at Knockaconny in Monaghan on Thursday afternoon.

The visitors opened the scoring courtesy of a pointed free from captain Eoin Bradley, before the Monaghan boys responded with two converted frees at the other end.

There was a good intensity to the exchanges and plenty of turnovers owing to the heavy underfoot conditions which made it hard to produce anything in the way of free-flowing football

Coliaste Oiriall were much the bigger and stronger side so the elements worked in their favour. Also the specific rules of the conpetition meant they were allowed to field boys in their 17th year, handing them an obvious advantage.

Despite that drawback Holy Cross started well and Eoin O’Neill, who had been continuously fouled throughout the first half, broke free and sent a rasper of a shot just over the crossbar to draw the game level.

With two minutes to go in the first half the referee moved a sideline ball from 40metres out to the front of the goals, allowing the hosts to take a lead, and then repeated the dose moments later to allow Coliaste Oiriall to go in at the short whistle two ahead (0-4 to 0-2).

The second half began with Oirialll scoring a goal straight from the throw-in. The younger Holy Cross team tried to battle back but were continuously overturned anytime they closed in on the opposition posts.

And when the chances did arise poor shot selection or passing let them down.

The Holy Cross management rang to the changes, moving Daire Houston to full forward, and Liam Harpur to midfield, but for all their endeavours they failed to raise a white flag throughout the second half. With less than five minutes remaining Eoin O’Neill and Eoin Bradley drilled opportunities off target which might have set up a grandstand finish.

Oiriall to their credit finished the game out counter attacking and adding four more points from play.

The management of Holy Cross would like to thank this group of lads for turning out week on week and getting the college to their second Ulster Colleges Final in a year. No doubt they will strive to continue to improve and get GAA in North Tyrone back to where it belongs.

Teams

Holy Cross – Jamie Clarke (Sigersons), Tomas Logue (Sigersons), Ben Carlin (Castlederg), Ronan Ruddy (Owen Roes), Ryan Caulfield (Owen Roes), Tiernan O’Connor (Sigersons), Dylan Walters (Sigersons), John Henderson (Urney), Daire Houston (Owen Roes), Jamie Stewart (Sigersons), Liam Harpur (Sigersons), Eoin Devlin (Urney), Eoin O’Neill (Sigersons), Eoin Bradley (capt, Sigersons), Cahir Lindsay (Urney)

Coliaste Oiriall – Emmett Farragher, Mark Beggan, Ethan Traynor, Donncha McGowan, Aindriu McKenna, Cormac McKenna, Conor Farmer, Chliav Malaya, Aodhan Lillis, Cillian McKenna, Peter Martin, Hugh McMahon, Callum McCaffrey, Eoghan O Dughaill, Tomas Allen