St Louis Ballymena started their Danske Bank Mageean Cup with a bang when they travelled to Lavey and beat St Pat’s Maghera with a convincing performance.
The first half was a closely contested affair, with goals from Ronan McCollum and Sean Og Blaney helping the Ballymena side to a slender half time lead (2-7 to 1-8) the Maghera goal coming from Conor Downey.
Aodhán McGarry, who scored ten point in the St Louis win
Maghera’s chances took a knock early in the second half when they lost key players Adam McLaughlin and Niall Barton St Louis pushed on at this stage, and with Rónán McCollum and Aodhán McGarry continuing to impress they got on top, and with McCollum adding another goal and McGarry hitting a series of excellent points to end up winners by 15 points.
St Louis: R McCollum 2-4, S óg Blaney 1-2, A McGarry 0-10, B McCloskey 0-1, R O’Boyle 0-1
Maghera: C Downey 1-3, E Scullion 0-4, E Mulholland 0-1, F McEldowney 0-1
Shane O’Neill’s, Glenarm will start as firm favourites for Saturday’s Casement SC JHC final where they take on Naomh Muire, Rasharkin at Dunsilly but the Feystown side would do well not to underestimate the threat posed by the men from Dreen.
Shane O’Neill’s have been in top form this season, suffering only one league defeat at home to St. Brigid’s Cloughmills on their way to the division 3 league title and they avenged that defeat when they travelled to Cloughmills in round 2 of the league by winning 4-20 to 3-17.
Two goals from corner-forward Kevin O’Boyle and goals apiece from Darren Hamill and Niall McGarel were the vital scores in a game that eventually decided the destination of the division 3 league and these three with Barry Hamill, Declan McDermott and the O’Boyle’s, Ben, Kieran and Sean and Dylan McLaughlin are all likely to play a vital role for the Feystown side at Dunsilly.
Conor Doherty has been solid at full-back for RasharkinNiall McGarel who has been in excellent scoring form for Glenarm
In contrast St. Mary’s had a mediocre league campaign, finishing second bottom with just four wins from 12 starts but came alive when it came around to the championship.
They finished top of their qualifying group with three wins from three starts with Davitt’s, All Saints and St. Brigid’s Belfast all put to the sword by the Rasharkin men.
Shane O’Neill’s came through a much tougher group 1 with wins over Glen Rovers, St. Brigid’s Cloughmill’s and a draw away to Lamh Dhearg and they were to meet the Armoy men again in the semi-final after Glen Rovers defeated Davitt’s in the quarter-final in Belfast.
Shane O’Neill’s recorded their fourth win of the season over Glen Rovers, Armoy in that semi-final at Feystown to advance to the final but despite the final margin of victory they were forced to fight all the way in a sometimes bruising battle.
Shanme Hasson who is part of a strong Rasharkin half forward lineKevin O’Boyle, a scoring threat for Glenarm
The Glenarm men had already recorded home and away wins in the league against Armoy and added a win over the same side in group 2 of the qualifiers and so went into this one as firm favourites but the men from the Armoy Glen were determined to cause an upset on this occasion.
After falling behind to an early Owen Kinney goal, Glenarm came back with goals from Kevin O’Boyle and Niall McGarel to lead by 2-6 to 1-5 at the break but the game was far from over at this stage.
Despite having a man dismissed after 13 minutes of the second half, Armoy threw everything at the opposition and goals from Eamon McCaughan and Trevor Linton in reply to a second from Niall McGarel for Glenarm kept the contest alive going into the closing stages.
A fourth goal from Dylan McLaughlin put matters out of reach of the visitors and Glenarm pushed on to win by 4-17 to 3-8 in the end and look in rude health as they go into Saturday’s decider.
Like their opponents, Rasharkin enjoyed home advantage for their semi-final against a St. Brigid’s, Cloughmills side who had hammered All Saints in the quarter-final and despite home advantage, it was former division 2 side St. Brigid’s who were expected to advance.
St. Mary’s went into this one as underdogs but they showed the battling qualities that they will need again in abundance when they face Shane O’Neill’s Glenarm in a final where they will again start as outsiders.
Tiernan O’Boyle who has a good season at mid-field for St. Mary’s
A personal tally of 0-8 from Conor McKeever paved the way for an excellent victory for St. Mary’s Rasharkin over St. Brigid’s. The big number 15 was in great form, both from play and from placed balls but he was only one of an excellent all round home side who’s greater desire and fighting spirit got them through to Saturday’s final.
Rasharkin led 0-4 to 0-0 after 8 minutes with McKeever hitting 0-3 but Cloughmills responded to close the gap to the minimum with 11 minutes gone. Rasharkin went on to lead by two at the break but had keeper Liam Tunney to thank as he pulled off an excellent save to deny Corey Blair what looked a certain goal.
The game was still finally balanced at the end of the third quarter when Aaron Smylie pointed for the visitors to level matters but it would be Cloughmills final score as St. Mary’s intensity started to tell.
Shane Hasson struck an inspirational point to give Rasharkin back a lead they would not again lose and Conor McKeever brought his personal tally to 0-8 from a ‘65’ in the 58th minute before substitute Conor McKillop followed with the last point of the game to see the home side into the final.
Conor McKeever is the man that Rasharkin will look to for scores on Saturday but St. Mary’s are certainly not a one man team and in keeper Liam Tunney, defenders Conor Doherty and Emmet McFerran, Thomas McMullan and Tiernan O’Boyle at mid-field and a strong half forward line of Shane Hasson, Conor McFerran and Eamon McNeill they have strong performers.
Shane O’Neill’s will have to be at their best but if they can reach the level of consistency they have shown throughout the league and championship then they should have enough to edge this eagerly awaited final.
Cross and Passion College got their 2022/23 Mageean campaign off to a winning start with a comfortable victory over the lads from Knock.
The opening 10 minutes was fairly open with scores at 0-3 each, with all Knocks points coming from placed balls. However a moment of individual brilliance from corner forward Roan McGarry put CPC on their way to victory – scoring a brilliant goal after winning his ball and beating a couple of Knock defenders before hitting the far top corner.
CPC dominated the rest of the half with various scorers on the board – Tiernan Heggarty, Ben O’Kane, Ronan Fitzgerald and Eoin ‘Snowy’ McGarry.
CPC’s Darragh Kelly
The second half was similar pattern to the first with the Knock competing well for first 12 minutes scoring a good goal, until that man McGarry struck his second goal of the game and from then until the finish CPC tagged on a further 2 -7 with no reply.
The Donnelly cousins Conor and Darragh were dominant in defence whilst midfielders Liam Glackin and Ronan Fitzgerald won plenty of ball to feed a forward line that although wasteful at times, scored plenty with the frequent supply of ball.
CPC will be happy to get a win under their belt and can look forward to next weeks game against holders St Patrick’s Downpatrick.
St. Mary’s Aghagallon came agonisingly close to winning their first Senior Football championship on Sunday when they lost in extra time to Erin’s own, Cargin at Corrigan Park. This Friday evening at Dunsilly they are involved in a less glamorous but arguably more important fixture to the Lough Shore club.
A less than impressive league campaign saw St. Mary’s finish second bottom in division 1 of the ACFL, their poor finishing position exacerbated by the unavailability of a host of players through injuries and a summer spent in the states by others.
Their opponents on Friday night are All Saints Ballymena who finished second in division 2 to St. Ergnat’s Moneyglass, winning 11 of their 16 fixtures in a season that finished in disappointment when they lost to Con Magee’s Glenravel in the quarter-final of the Intermediate Football championship.
That defeat was at Fr. Maginn Park back on the 11th September and the Slemish Park side have had to wait patiently in the wings as Aghagallon have put a strong Senior Championship run behind them to reach last Sunday’s decider.
St. Mary’s were drawn in group 3 of the qualifiers with Gort na Mona and Tir na nOg and topped the group with wins over both these sides. They were drawn against St. Brigid’s in the quarter-final and St. Mary’s made it three championship wins from three starts with a 0-14 to 0-7 win over the Musgrave Park side.
This set them up with a repeat of last year’s semi-final when they were drawn against Casement’s Portglenone and St. Mary’s Aghagallon produced a great come-back to earn their place for the second year in succession in the Northern Switchgear Senior Football Championship final.
That game was at Friday night’s venue, Dunsilly and the Aghagallon men will start as firm favourite to an All Saints side who have been knocking at the promotion door for a number of years but have been unable to gain access to the premier division.
St. Mary’s scored an impressive 12 goals during their Senior Championship campaign and in Ruairi McCann, Adam Loughran, Eunan Walsh and Gareth Magee they have players who can pose a serious scoring threat and Audi Kelly’s side will start as firm fasvourites.
The tag of underdogs will certainly suit All Saints and the Ballymena men have often performed better when the odds are stacked firmly against them.
James McDonnell, Paddy McAleer, Emmet Killough, Kavan Keenan, Sean McVeigh, Michael McCarry and Benny McDonnell will lead the All Saints challenge and ‘Baker Bradley’s side will give it everything but it might not be enough to prevent St. Mary’s retain the division 1 status.
Eamon McKillop, proprietor of McKillops Frys Road Spar, Ballymena presents a sponsorship cheque for £500 to Paddy McIlwaine who received it on behalf of the Saffron Gael
