Gourley all set for MacRory semi derby collision

IT’S fair to say that there’s considerable intrigue surrounding Saturday afternoon’s MacRory Cup semi-final between neighbours St Patrick’s Academy and St Joseph’s Donaghmore at Carrickmore (throw-in 2pm)

For the Dungannon-based school this is fairly familiar terrain and they lost out in last year’s penultimate MacRory clash to Holy Trinity Cookstown.

For St Joseph’s  the exact opposite applies as this is their debut season in the ‘A’-grade Ulster Schools competition, but that’s not to say that their team is lacking in experience.

They can call upon a number of the lads who led their charge to last year’s provincial and All-Ireland ‘B’ double like Noah Grimes and Conor O’Neill, two Donaghmore lads who have also excelled in recent years at underage level with Tyrone.

St Joseph’s are managed once again by Niall Kelly and they cruised into the semi-finals with a thumping victory over Abbey CBS.

Again by contrast, the Academy were put to the pin of their collars by an industrious Patrician High side from Carrickmacross, eventually coming out on top after a protracted penalty shoot-out. Lads like Sean Hughes and Matthew Quinn stepped up to the plate when they were needed most, and manager Ciaran Gourley was delighted with his team’s gritty qualities in a marathan battle at Galbally.

“At different stages we thought we’d lost it, at different stages we thought we had it won. I knew from watching Carrickmacross that they’re a resolute, determined outfit and they weren’t going to lie down.

“I wouldn’t expect anything else at this level and we struggled at times to break that down and to get into position to get shots away, and when we did get shots, they were pot-shots.

“ But you can do twenty training sessions and you wouldn’t get the same benefit out of it as a game like that, that’ll bring the boys on leaps and bounds in terms of gelling them together as a team and hopefully we can bring that character and fight into the next match.”

Looking ahead to Saturday’s derby tussle with St Joseph’s, Gourley commented: “We seem to be getting Tyrone derbies this last couple of years. But look, it’s great for Tyrone football.

“We were involved last year against Holy Trinity and came out on the wrong end of the result. It’s going to be a tough game again, I know a lot of the Donaghmore lads from being involved with the Tyrone minors, they’ve good quality throughout their team. It’ll be a ding-dong battle.”