By 
LAST Thursday afternoon, St Ciaran’s joint-skipper Miceal Mullin had the privilege of holding aloft the Markey Cup alongside Darren McAnespie. It could easily have turned out differently only an accomplished Cardonagh CS team were finally repelled by a clinically taken Conan Canavan goal in injury-time.
Played in ferociously blustery conditions at Owenbeg, both teams acquitted themselves very well and in the end up the Ballygawley-based school prevailed on a scoreline of 4-12 to 2-15.
Speaking after the match, Mullin said: “It was a tough one – Carndonagh are a very good side, we’ll definitely see a lot of those boys playing for a high level for club and county.
“The wind was crazy, you could barely run into it. In the first-half we played against it and we thought if we stayed in touch we’d have the shooters to come good in the second-half, and we just pulled through in the end.”
It was still touch and go and Carndonagh led by a point heading into injury-time before Canavan stepped up with the decisive score of the game.
“We thought we were gone, they were ahead but we stuck it out. Thankfully Conan got a goal, he took it very well, he specialises in that stuff!
“It’s just brillliant to have won. We’ve had good teams but missed out on days like these. Last year there was a good squad of boys who lost in the quarter-finals, they were hit by a few unlucky goals, so it’s just class to win it this year.”
Mullin also paid tribute to their management team spearheaded by Fionntan Devlin and Darren McCann, who is also manager of Tyrone’s Senior Intercounty Ladies team.
“Those two boys are superb, the work they put in for years probably went unnoticed. They’ve put in countless hours and we didn’t give them the silverware they deserve, but luckily we’ve got our hands on the Markey Cup.”
