Danske Bank MacLarnon Cup quarter-final

St Patrick’s Downpatrick 2-5 St Mary’s CBGS Belfast 2-3

Pics by Bert Trowlen

The strong wind had a large bearing on Monday’s MacLarnon Cup quarter final at Dromara as Red High booked their place in the semi-final despite not scoring in the opening half. St Mary’s CBGS, who only ended up two points short at the end, will regret the fact that they could only manage two points with the wind at their backs in the first half, those scores coming from Odhran Quinn on 23 minutes and Liam Lynn two minutes later.

Wind assisted Red High won the game in the opening ten minutes of the second half when they hit 2-5, but amazingly went the rest of the game without raising a single flag. Early points from full forward Dorans and midfielder Gates brought them level and when Eoin Murray got his team’s opening goal it was clear St Mary’s faced an uphill struggle. When they got their second goal on 39 minutes it looked like the Downpatrick boys were in for a runaway victory, but in the final ten minutes St Mary’s really made a fight of it when substitute Shea Burns grabbed two goals to close the gap to just two.

There were a few anxious moments for Red High in the final minutes but in the end they held out comfortably to seal a semi-final spot.

St Patrick’s: E Murray 1-1, N Flannagan 1-0, A Dorans 0-2, L McCabe and D Higgins 0-1 each

St Mary’s: S Burns 2-0, D Barr 0-2, O Quinn 0-1.

St Patrick’s: C McGlew, E Fitzsimons, L Carew, E Mullan, G Doran, C McShane, M Murray, T Murphy, R Gates, E Murray, S Murphy, L McCabe, D Higgins, A Dorans, R Canavan. 

Subs used: F Kielty for Canavan, N Flanagan for D Higgins, D Farrell for S Murphy, J Dalzell for E Mullan

St Mary’s: O Devlin, C Rainey, D O’Sullivan, M Darragh, R Quinn, E McGurk, L Lynne, R McDonald, R Gallagher, C Walsh, B Burns, O Casey, O Quinn, D Barr, F Jemfries.

Subs: S Burns for O Devlin, A Connolly for R McDonald, C Ward for C Walsh