Ulster Colleges Danske Bank McCormack Cup Football Final
St Aidan’s Derrylin 0-9 Colaiste Feirste 0-6
Pics by Bert Trowlen
Lady luck deserted Colaiste Feirste in Friday’s McCormack Cup Football final when they were beaten by Derrylin of Fermanagh in a highly exciting game of football at St McCartan’s in Augher.
When they failed to score in the opening half and went in at the break trailing by six points, the prospects of a victory looked pretty remote, but they fought back really well in the second period and had the gap back to two with ten minutes still to play. St Aidan’s came back with a point to put the Fermanagh school three points clear again, but the Belfast boys fought all the way and when Darragh Quinn broke through in injury time and looped a shot over the Derrylin goalkeeper for a brief moment it appeared as if they had saved the day. However Quinn’s well struck shot came back off the crossbar and the excellent Derrylin defence cleared the danger yet again to seal the win that gave the Fermanagh team its first Ulster title in their 51 years of existence.
Heavily outnumbered on the supporters’ side (St Aidan’s had all their feeder primary school pupils in attendance) Colaiste Feirste looked nervous at the start and were lucky not to fall behind when Derrylin hit the post in their first attack. The Belfast boys began to settle and for the remainder of the half they matched their opponents in everything except on the scoreboard. They had as much possession as Derrylin but just could not hit the target, while the Fermanagh boys picked off some great scores through Ronan Fitzgerald, Thomas Fitzpatrick (3), Alex McCaffrey and Dan O’Connor to lead by 0-6 to 0-0.
Things looked bleak for the Belfast boys as they left the field at half time, but they re-emerged with new hope in their hearts and during the third quarter they took control of the game. Noah McDonnell finished a great move with a well taken point on 34 minutes to get them on the scoreboard, full forward Nathan McKeanna added another fine effort a minute later, before centre forward Oisin Cussack hit a beauty from a narrow angle to cut the gap back to three by the 39th minute.
The Fermanagh side could not get out of their own half, but their full-back line defended magnificently and Colaiste Feirste’s Darragh Quinn was denied by a brilliant save from Derrylin goalkeeper Daire Maguire on 55 minutes. One minute later free taker Christopher Roberts brought the gap back to two when he slotted over a free, and though St Aidan’s first point of the second half restored their three point cushion, Roberts struck again to leave just two between the sides.
With time running out Ciaran Shannon put Derrylin three clear yet again but as the game entered injury time Colaiste Feirste came oh so close to bringing the game to extra time when Darragh Quinn’s shot from close range came back off the crossbar.
