Electric Ireland Sigerson Cup, Round One – Davitt Park
St Mary’s UC 1-16 Queen’s University, Belfast 1-9
At the fourth time of asking St Mary’s UC made a great start to their Sigerson Cup campaign when they beat their Belfast rivals Queen’s University at Davitt Park on Sunday.
The game had been fixed three times last week, but the severe cold spell took its toll each time, but the weather conditions on Sunday turned out to be excellent and it was all systems go.
QUB had the better of things in the opening half and appeared to be in a strong position when they led at the break by two points. However St Mary’s grew into the game the further the game went on and after drawing level in the 48th minute they pushed on to dominate the final ten minutes to win by four in the end.
Antrim county player Ryan McQuillan pointed Queens ahead in the early stages, though Sean Quigley soon had St Mary’s back on terms with a fine long range point. However Queens held the upper hand as the opening quarter progressed and they went 0-03 to 0-01 ahead with points from corner forward Luke Donnelly and goalkeeper Oran McGrath, who foraged upfield to help his forwards out. Daniel Haigney cut the gap back to a single point but Ryan McQuillan and Padraig Purcell hit back for Queens to give them a three point cushion.
St Mary’s responded well and two well taken points from Sean Rock and Fergal O’Brien to cut the deficit to a single point, but a goal from full forward Ryan McQuillan swung the momentum back in Queens’ favour and put them four clear with just seven minutes of the opening half to play. St Mary’s appeared to be in danger of being cut adrift but they had the better of things in the run into half time and points from Niall McKenna and Sean Rock cut the gap back to just two by half time. (1-6 to 0-07)
A Fergal O’Brien points early in the new half cut the deficit to the minimum for the Falls Road men, and even though Fergal O’Brien put Queens two ahead once again, it was clear the momentum was swinging it St Mary’s favour and point from McKenna and Reavey brought them level. After soaking up a lot of pressure Queens went back ahead with a Patrick McGurk point and you began to wonder if St Mary would rue their missed chances, but two Niall McKenna points got them back in front and the confidence began to grow.
Corner back Brian Conway brought Queens level again and you wondered if they could hold on, despite St Mary’s dominance from play. However the Falls Road college were not to be denied and they produced a storming finish with McKenna leading the line, the full forward ending with seven in a man of the match display. Goalkeeper Shea Magill got on the scoreboard with a pointed free while centre forward Sean Rock put the icing on the cake with a well taken goal.
Both teams are on the road this week with St Mary’s travelling to TU Dublin, while Queens make the journey to Galway.
ST MARY’S: S Magill (0-1, 45); J Donnelly, F Murdock, M Hynes; D Haigney (0-1), M McCallan, S O’Donnell; D Treanor, F O’Brien (0-2); D Mooney, S Rock (1-3, 0-2f), S Quigley (0-1); C Logan, N McKenna (0-7, 4f, 1m), D Logue.
Subs: C Reavey (0-1) for C Logan (40), C Walsh for D Mooney (60+4)
QUB: O McGrath (0-1); B Conway (0-1), J McErlaine, R Boyle; L Downey, L McBride, P McGurk (0-1); M Laverty, J Lenaghan; A Crimmins, P Purcell (0-1), D Higgins; R Cassidy, R McQuillan (1-2), L Donnelly (0-3, 2f, 1 m).
Subs: C Love for L Donnelly (40), L McManus for P Purcell (46), J O’Hara for R Boyle (52).
REFEREE: Enda Mallon (Armagh)
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