Electric Ireland Fergal Maher Cup Final at MallowThe St Mary’s team who won the Fergal Maher Cup. Pic by Coilin Duffy.

St Mary’s University College Belfast 0-20 GMIT Letterfrack 3-7

By Cóilín Duffy

For the second year in a row the Ranch is on fire with All-Ireland silverware, but this time it was the turn of the St Mary’s University College Belfast hurlers, who delivered an impressive four-point win over GMIT Letterfrack in this Fergal Maher Cup final in Mallow on Saturday.

12 months ago GMIT Letterfrack captured their first title in this competition at the West Belfast colleges expense, but Collie Murphy’s charges weren’t going to let them have further glory.

Led by Antrim player Conor Johnston, who must have covered every inch of the pitch in Friday’s semi-final win over St Pat’s MICL, Thurles; and again on the way to a Man of the Match display in the final; St Mary’s battled hard to take silverware.

“They put in a great performance, and I’m delighted with their attitude as well,” Murphy said.

“Going into the second half they were two points down, we said do we want this or how much do they want it and they proved in the second half that they had the players there.

“You had the stars like Conor (Johnston), Pearse Óg (McCrickard) and Deaglan (Murphy) – all established county players. Then you had younger players like Micheál McGreevy and Tiernan Murphy who just came to the fore today.

“Over the last two days I thought we were the best team in the tournament.”                                                                                                 Eight unanswered points in the middle part of the second half laid the platform for this win, in a game where Mary’s trailed by 2-4 to 0-8 at the interval.

St Eunan’s Donegal clubman Conor O’Grady netted a 14-minute goal, and Sean Hogan followed up with a second, after Johnston had drawn the sides level.

Both sides were down to 14 men at this stage, with Prionsias Burke and Adrian Cooke dismissed.

Johnston, Deaglan Murphy and McCrickard hit the first three points on the restart, and although Colin Waters equalised for GMIT Letterfrack, Mary’s took over.

Murphy and McCrickard sharing the next eight points, as Mary’s were totally dominant.

GMIT fought back with Eoin Purcell netting a 51st minute goal, but Mary’s held on for victory.

ST MARYS UNIVERSITY COLLEGE (Antrim unless stated): M Hopkins; E McGonigle (Derry), C Kelly (Derry), D Chapman (0-1); P Gunning (Derry), S Duffin, C Stinton; M McGreevy, P Burke (Derry); P Óg McCrickard (Down) (0-4), C Johnston (0-4, 1f), D Murphy (0-10, 5f); T Murphy (0-1), D Grant (Armagh), R McCusker (Down). Sub: D Heading for Chapman.

GMIT LETTERFRACK (Galway unless stated): D Doyle; C Griffin (Donegal), J McNamara, P Coss (Kilkenny); R Carr, A Daly (Laois), S Murphy (Wexford); C Waters (Offaly), C O’Grady (Donegal) (1-0); A Cooke (Limerick), E Purcell (Kilkenny) (0-4, 4f), S Claffey (1-0), G Walsh, S Hogan (Waterford) (1-2), W Kenny (Kilkenny) (0-1). Subs: Peter Tobin (Kilkenny) for Coss; E Farrell for Murphy.

REFEREE: Thomas Walsh (Waterford)Conor Johnston receives the Man of the Match award

 

 

Allianz National Hurling League Division 1B @ Pairc Mhuire, CushendallAntrim goalkeeper Ryan Elliott make a brilliant point blank save to deny Limerick corner forward Graeme Mulcachy a certain goal. However the Limerick man had the last laugh  with two goals later in the game as the visitors cruised to a big win. Pic by Dylan McIlwaine

Antrim 0-13 Limerick 3-21

Antrim were no match for a slick moving Limerick side in today’s Allianz National Hurling League game in Cushendall as the Saffrons fell to their fourth defeat in a row. In the other three defeats there were crumbs of comfort for the Saffron followers as Antrim had come close to their opponents but this time out there was a wide gulf in standards at the home team chased shadows for most of the game against the impressive visitors. The held their own well for the opening twenty five minutes when they only trailed by a single point, but a goal by substitute Oisin O’Reilly swung the game decisively in Limerick’s favour and they piled on the pressure in the final minutes to open a 1-13 to 0-8 half time lead. The Antrim fans must have looked forward to the second half when their team had the used of the strong breeze that blew into the town end of Pairc Mhuir, but the wind made no difference to the slick Shannonsiders who were even more dominant after the break, and indeed had it not been for some smart saves by league debutant Ryan Elliott in the Antrim goal the seventeen point margin that separated the sides at the end could have been much more.

In bright but cold conditions Rossa’s Michael Armstrong who was making his first appearance in a couple of years, got the home team off to a good start with a well taken point in the opening minute but it was a short lived lead as the visitors’ left half back Diarmuid Byrnes levelled with a point from a long range free from well inside his own half. Antrim rode their luck when Aaron Gillane’s penalty rattled off the Ryan Elliott’s crossbar soon afterwards and they took advantage when Nigel Elliott restored the home team’s lead with a well taken point from the left wing. Limerick began to get a grip on the game and three unanswered points had them 0-4 to 0-2 clear, but Conor McCann cut the gap back to a point with a brilliantly taken point from out on the right sideline.

Limerick replied with three on the trot through Byrnes, Reidy and O’Connor and they appeared to be taking control but when Antrim came back with two pointed frees from Neil McManus there was just a point between the sides with just eight first half minutes left to play.

Conor McCann responded for the Saffrons, but Byrnes, David Reidy and Barry O’Connell pointed for the visitors before a pair of Neil McManus frees moved Antrim to within one again on 27 minutes. The home side would have been very happy to be in this position, considering they had the breeze to come in the second half, but the game swung heavily in Limerick’s favour in the thirtieth minute when substitute O’Reilly cut in along the left endline and batted and angled shot past Elliott in the Antrim goal. The score appeared to knock the stuffing out of Antrim and before they regained their composure Limerick hit them with a barrage of scores which opened the gap to eight points by the time referee John O’Brien sounded his half time whistle.

Left – Nigel Elliott hand passes the ball out to Michael Armstrong before Armstrong has his shot blocked down by Limerick’s David Reidy, who breaks his hurl in the process. Pics by John McIlwaine

Antrim just couldn’t get going at the start of the second half and although they held Limerick to just two early points they could make no inroads themselves. The killer blow for the home side came nine minutes in when first half goal scorer O’Reilly set corner forward Graeme Mulcachy clear and the Kilmallock man made no mistake as he fired in his team’s second goal to stretch the gap to 2-15 to 0-0-8 and this stage the only thing in question was the size of the winning margin.

Neil McManus grabbed a few much needed scores for Antrim, but Limerick always had answer, and then some, as Ryan, Browne, Reidy and Giallane picked off top class scores. The overworked Antrim defence were battling bravely to keep the Limerick men at bay but as the game entered injury time the dangerous Mulcachy got in for his team’s third goal to wrap up a convincing win, a victory that sets up a cracking final league game against Galway on Sunday next.

Antrim on the other hand have to regroup as they travel to Birr to take on Offaly in their final game knowing that they will face a relegation play-off regardless of the result. Things have been promising for the Saffrons this season, despite losing all their games to date. They were well outclassed on Sunday, but they can take heart from their other games when they were highly competitive and they will want to end on a high note with a good showing on Sunday next.

ANTRIM: Ryan Elliott; Arron Graffin, John Dillon, Stephen Rooney; Ryan McCambridge, David Kearney, Joe Maskey; Eoghan Campbell, Conor McKinley; James McNaughton, Michael Armstrong, Neil McManus; Donel McKinley, Conor McCann, Nigel Elliott. Subds: Neal McAuley for Joe Maskey (26), Conor Carson for James McNaughton (HT), Paddy Burke for Ryan McCambridge (47), Dan McCloskey for Donal McKinley (51), Eoin O’Neill for Michael Armstrong (56).

LIMERICK: Barry Hennessy; Tom Condon, Richie McCarthy, Richie English; Diarmaid Byrnes, Declan Hannon, Dan Morrissey; Paul Browne, Colin Ryan; David Reidy, Cian Lynch. Barry O’Connell; Aaron Gillane, Seamus Flanagan, Graeme Mulcahy. Subs: Oisin O’Reilly for Seamus Flanagan (10), Andrew La Touche for Aaron Gillane (56), Paddy O’Loughlin for Richie English (60).

Scorers

Antrim: Neil McManus 0-8 (5 frees), Nigel Elliott 0-2, Michael Armstrong 0-1, Conor McCann 0-1, Eoghan Campbell 0-1

Limerick: Aaron Gillane 1-5 (0-3 frees), David Reidy 0-5 (1 free), Diarmaid Byrnes 0-4 (3 frees), Graeme Mulcahy 1-2, Oisin O’Reilly 1-0, Paul Browne 0-2, Coin Ryan 0-2, Barry O’Connell 0-1

REFEREE: John O’Brien (Tipperary)

Pics by John and Dylan McIlwaine – Saffron Gael