fonaCAB Ulster Minor Club Football Tournament quarter-final
O’Donovan Rossa, Magherafelt 1-16 St Brigid’s 2-10
A late goal by centre back Eoin Sherry brought Antrim champions St Brigid’s to within one score of Derry’s Magherafelt O’Donovan Rossa in Saturday evening’s opening game in the fonaCAB Ulster Minor Football tournament at Colaiste Féirste’s. The Musgrave Park side had battled hard against a hotly fancied Magherafelt outfit who always held the upper hand.
The Derry boys led by five at the break and increased that lead to eight at a stage in the second half. It began to look like this would be a real runaway for the Derry side, but to their credit St Brigid’s kept on battling and closed to within three by the time Down referee Gavin Finnegan sounded the final whistle.
Rossa held the upper hand from the start and with their pace causing St Brigid’s problems at the back and Cathir Spiers opened their account with a point inside four minutes. Things got worse for St Brigid’s when the Derry champions grabbed the opening goal of the game through Kian Maynes, but St Brigid’s hit back right away top scorer JJ Higgins swung a ball across the Rossa goalmouth for Joseph Mellon to palm to the net.
Things were suddenly looking promising for the Antrim champions, but Magherafelt came back strongly with points from Spiers and Kerr to push the lead back out to three. McGarvey fisted over for St Brigid’s to close the gap to two but Caolan and Conall Higgins responded with points for Rossa and late scores from Jude Beattie, Conall Higgins and Lorcan Higgins stretched their advantage to five at the interval. Magherafelt 1-8 St Brigid’s 1-03
That five point lead was soon out to seven as Leacock and Higgins added points soon after the restart and the gap was out to eight after goalkeeper Karl Campbell sent over from a 45.
St Brigid’s full forward JJ Higgins, who ended with eight points to his name, helped his side close to within six. The gap stayed at six as both sides exchanged points in a hard fought contest.
With the gap at six St Brigid’s needed something special to get back into contention and when Sherry got in for his team’s second goal there was renewed hope among the South Belfast fans. It was not to be however as the Derry champions were able to keep the St Brigid’s challenge at arms-length as they secured their place in the semi-final in two weeks’ time.
O’DONOVAN ROSSA MAGHERAFELT: K Campbell (0-2, 2 45s); T Cartin, Z Gavigan, R Conway; E Spiers, R Small, C Kerr (0-1); J Beattie (0-1), C Spiers (0-2, 1f); C Leacock (0-1), Caolan Higgins (0-4), L Higgins (0-1); K Maynes (1-0), Conall Higgins (0-3, 1f), M Higgins (0-1).
Subs: T Beattie for K Maynes (58), B McCormack for R Conway (58).
ST BRIGID’S: L Cullinan; C McElhatton, S Doyle, C O’Connell; J Mulgrew, E Sherry (1-0), O Conlon; P Mulgrew, D McGurk; T McGarvey (0-1), D Quinn, J Mellon (1-0); J Logan, JJ Higgins (0-8, 6f, 1m), M Lloyd.
Subs: P Molloy for J Logan (43), P O’Connell (0-1) for T McGarvey (49), J Blaney for J Mellon (56), C McKavanagh for J Mulgrew (58).
REFEREE: Gavin Finnegan (Down)
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