FonaCAB Ulster Minor Football Tournament, Preliminary Round
Mayobridge 2-10-1-10 Kingscourt Stars
Kevin Herron reports from An Sportlann, Colaiste Feirste
MAYOBRIDGE advanced to the quarter-final of the FonaCAB Ulster Minor Football Tournament at St Pauls with a 2-10-1-10 victory over Kingscourt Stars of Cavan in their prelim clash at An Sportlann Colasite Feirste on Sunday afternoon.
Playing with the strong breeze in the opening half, Mayobridge capitalised in the early stages with Corey Clerkin swinging a high shot over the bar inside of 23-seconds before the opening goal arrived in the 3rd minute.
Daniel Carr surged forward with ease and after bearing down on goal he shot low past Cian Platt in the Kingscourt goal.
It took ten minutes for the Cavan outfit to register through Aaron Shekleton but at the other end Cian Platt needed to block Daire O’Keeffe’s goalbound attempt and Clerkin converted a free after play was brought back for a foul in the build-up.
Midway through the half Mayobridge cut through and threatened the Kingscourt goal again. Clerkin was slipped in by Darragh Poland, the goal chance was closed, and Daniel Carr shot over on the turn.
Clerkin doubled his tally from play following a link-up with Patrick Woods and Woods then joined the scoring list, converting a free after being fouled.
Kingscourt were in need of a score to give themselves hope at the break and a stroke of fortune saw them find the net on the 24th minute.
Joe McCormack got his hand to a loose pass and ran onto the ball ahead of Michael Gallagher and stroked a low shot into the corner of the net to make it 1-05-1-01.
An angled Darragh Poland point in reply left five-points between the sides at the break with McCormack’s goal ensuring his side were still in touch with the breeze in the second period.
Mayobridge started the brighter after the break and extended their advantage through a Clerkin point.
After a series of wides in the opening half, Kingscourt full-forward Michael McKeon found his range, but Patrick Woods converted his second free of the afternoon a few minutes later.
Woods almost found his sides second goal after collecting a pass from Clerkin, though his shot from a tight angle was deflected away from danger
The Down Champions only had two minutes to wait before they did take a huge stride to victory on the 43rd minute with Daire O’Keeffe ramming home from close-range to open up a 2-08-1-02 lead.
Kingscourt weren’t going quietly however and five-points unanswered breathed new life into proceedings.
Captain, Cormac McAvinney led the fightback with their first score in almost a quarter of an hour and popped over again four minutes later to reduce arrears to four (2-08-1-07).
In-between times Michael McKeon converted two frees and steered over his second from play.
Despite trailing, momentum was with the Cavan outfit until substitute Darragh Sherlock was dismissed with seven minutes to play.
The corner-back was booked along with Mayobridge’s Ryan Coulter for an off the ball incident early in the second half and Sherlock was given his marching orders- picking up a black card for a deliberate pull-down.
Patrick Woods converted the resulting free and Corey Clerkin kicked his fifth and final point of the afternoon 60-seconds later to move Mayobridge 2-10-1-07 ahead.
Kingscourt would rally again in the closing stages and Michael McKeon kicked three further frees in a four-minute period to setup a grandstand finish.
A second goal eluded his side though as Mayobridge saw the game out to advance to a quarter-final meeting with Fr Rocks Cookstown on December 15th.
MAYOBRIDGE: M Gallagher, R Magone, B Kelly, J McGlade, O De Rose, D McMahon, C Colhoun, D O’Keeffe (1-0), C Keenan, D Carr (1-1), C Clerkin (0-5, 0-1f), P Woods (0-3f), R Coulter, D Poland (0-1), C McPolin. SUBS: J Keenan for R Magone (57),G Barry for J McGlade (57).
KINGSCOURT STARS: C Platt, L Gogarty, C McAvinney (0-2), A O’Neill, N McCormack, A Shekleton (0-1), L Madden, D Putnam, J McKeon, P O’Reilly, R Carey, M Lennon, C Gaynor, M McKeon (0-7, 0-5f), J McCormack (1-0). SUBS: D Sherlock for A O’Neill (32), C Patterson for P O’Reilly (36), M Putnam for M Lennon (50).
REFEREE: Brendan Toland (LÁMH DHEARG)
TO VIEW BERT TROWLEN’S PICS FROM THE GAME CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW