Holy Trinity stage stunning comeback in MacRory clash

Holy Trinity 2-6

St Pat’s, Maghera 2-5

IF it was drama that you were after then Owenbeg was the place to be on Friday night as Holy Trinity staged an unbelievable finish to pip St Pat’s Maghera and book their place in the semi-finals of the Danske Bank MacRory Cup.

With the sides level, the Derry lads struck for a 57th-minute goal and in a low-scoring encounter that looked as though it was going to be the pivotal moment in the game. Holy Trinity, though, had other ideas with Michael McElhatton crashing the ball to the back of the net three minutes into injury time to equalise and then unbelievably the Tyrone school won it in the next attack through man-of-the-match Ryan Quinn.

It was the ultimate smash and grab from Holy Trinity but over the course of the 60-odd minutes they were the better side, but a number of wides looked as though it was going to prove costly.

Their reward is a last four meeting with either neighbours St Patrick’s Academy Dungannon or St Macartan’s, Monaghan.

It was St Pat’s, Maghera who opened the scoring inside 60 seconds with a mark from Ciaran Chambers. Moments later Holy Trinity almost got in for a goal but Quinn was denied by Maghera keeper Jack McCloy. In the 11th minute the winners did grab the opening goal of the contest when Hugh J Cunningham and Jack Martin combined to play the ball to Conan Devlin and he did the rest with a smart finish.

Both defences were on top in difficult weather conditions with scores proving difficult to come by. With Ruairi McHugh on top in midfield Holy Trinity had the better of things in terms of possession but they failed to make it count.

Maghera defender Adam McLaughlin responded with a quality effort with the outside of his boot before Liam Lawn pointed for Holy Trinity.

That score in the 20th minute though proved to be their last of the half. Eoin Higgins and Chambers both converted frees to level matters before the latter registered from play to give St Pat’s, Maghera a slender interval lead, 0-5 to 1-1.

The second half was only two minutes old when Maghera punished a mistake for Higgins to fire to the net past Holy Trinity keeper Ruairi Dillion. Despite that setback Holy Trinity regrouped to hold their opponents scoreless for the next 22 minutes. During that time corner forward Quinn really came to the fore for Holy Trinity as they put a number of wides behind them.

McElhatton from play and Quinn from a free closed the gap before a brace inside 60 seconds from Quinn levelled matters going into the final quarter. As the tension grew both sides struggled for scores with both defences on top.

With three minutes left to play a patient build up resulted in a second goal for Higgins and it looked like being a decisive score. Holy Trinity had other ideas though and a precision pass from Cormac Devlin picked out McElhatton and he did the rest with a clinical finish.

It was a massive score and when Maghera keeper McCloy’s kick out was intercepted by Quinn he landed the winner with his fourth point of the day for a brilliant win.