fonaCAB Ulster Minor Football Tournament, quarter-final (AET)
Fr Rocks, Cookstown 0-19
Mayobridge 1-11
Fr. Rock’s Cookstown, the Tyrone County Champions became the last team to make their bow in the fonaCAB-St. Paul’s Minor Football tournament when they faced Mayobridge of Down in the final quarter-final of the competition at Shaw’s Road on Sunday.
Mayobridge had already negotiated a preliminary round and Sunday’s game against Fr. Rocks took a time to get up to speed and going into the closing stages it was the Down side who looked to have done enough.
Fr. Rocks finished strongly to force extra time and keep the good crowd who had attended at Shaw’s Road on their toes.
The Tyrone champions showed great battling qualities with Mayobridge looking to have nicked it late, but the Cookstown club forced the additional time and there was no looking back from there as they built a wind-assisted lead to dominate the final 10 minutes.
Mayobridge played against the breeze in the opening half but they got off to the perfect start as a long ball from Patrick Woods saw Gary Clerkin turn his marker and place Daire O’Keefe to finish to the net.
The Cookstown side got off the mark from an Eoin Long free, but their shooting would let them down in the opening half as they recorded 10 wides during a wasteful 30 plus minutes.
Clerkin again used his pace to get clear to add a score for Mayobridge and finally, a barren 10-minute spell for the Tyrone side ended with Conall Sheehy landing back-to-back scores.
Two Clerkin frees was the Mayobridge response with Long firing over and Sheehy steering his third of the half over the bar to leave one in it again.
Mayobridge could have had a second goal when Ben Kelly got free but his pass into Jude McGlade was too high, yet a converted mark from Darragh Poland gave them a 1-4 to 0-5 advantage at the interval.
Despite playing into a strong wind for the second period, it was Cookstown who asserted themselves early on, but a couple of promising attacks came to nothing.
Mayobridge sat deep and attempted to hit on the break and the tactic looked like paying off when a turnover saw Daniel Carr take a snapshot that curled just wide.
However, the Tyrone champions were playing all the football and were denied a goal of their own when Conor Colhoun made a vital block on Darragh McHugh.
Eventually, it would turn the way of Fr Rocks as two long frees tied it before they hit the lead for the first time through substitute Sean Devlin.
They would kick on as Long, Lorcan McMurray and Michael Lennon split the posts to open a four-point gap with 10 to play.
Mayobridge needed to get something going and it was the excellent Patrick Woods who led the way, converting a free and adding three more from play with Carr also on target to give them the lead as the clock ticked down.
Long tied it up with a free seconds into added time but the restart saw the Down men conjure what looked the winner as Colhoun split the posts.
There was time for one more attack however from Fr. Rocks that saw them earn a free and off his left foot into the wind, McMurray sent the game into extra-time with the score 0-13 to 1-10.
This time, with the wind behind them, the Tyrone champions would avail of the advantage with five points on the spin in the first period – two apiece from Karol Wawrynkiewicz and Long (one free) that sandwiched a McMurray score.
A Clerkin point reduced it to 0-18 to 1-11 at the turnaround, but despite the wind advantage for the final 10 minutes, Mayobridge couldn’t turn it around.
Instead, the superb Sheehy’s fourth of the day extended the gap as the Down team attacked but missed opportunities as they began to chase goals.
Cookstown goalkeeper Sean Og Quinn was up to the task with a couple of high catches as the minutes ticked by and when Mayobridge lost Daniel Carr to a late red card, that was that as the Tyrone side earned the right to face defending champions, Four Masters of Donegal in the semi-final on St Stephen’s Day (1pm at St Paul’s).
The first of the semi-finals will take place this Sunday (December 21 at St Paul’s, 1pm) when Armagh’s Clann Éireann take on O’Donovan Rossa from Magherafelt, Derry with the final down for decision on
New Year’s Day.
Fr. Rocks: S Og Quinn; S Corrigan, D McHugh, C McElkearney; C Mulligan, K Wawrynkiewicz (0-2), M Lennon (0-1); L Neeson, Y Baba; J McElhone, L McMurray (0-3 1f), C Sheehy (0-4); D Ward, E Long (0-8, 6f), C Ward.
Subs: S Devlin (0-1) for C Ward (HT) C Hawker for D Ward (HT), M McCrellis for J McElhone (46), D Ward for C Hawker (51).
ET subs: C Ward for D McHugh (started), J McElhone for C McElkearney (20), D McHugh for E Long (20)
Mayobridge: M Gallagher, R Magone, B Kelly, J McGlade; O De Rose, D McMahon, C Colhoun (0-1); D O’Keefe (1-0), C Keenan; D Carr (0-1), C Clerkin (0-4, 3f), P Woods (0-4, 2f); R Coulter, D Poland (0-1m), C McPolin.
Subs: G Barry for R Magone (48).
ET subs: J McConville for R Coulter (15), J Keenan for B Kelly (19).
Referee: Colm McDonald (Antrim)
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