Ulster JFC – 1.30pm Saturday Brewster Park
St.Patrick’s Donagh (Fermanagh) v St. Agnes (Antrim)
St Agnes make the trip to Enniskillen this Saturday in the first round of the Ulster Junior Football club championship where they will face Fermanagh champions, St. Patrick’s Donagh.
The Aggies have been in splendid form this season and completed a league and championship double when they beat Pearses in the Graham Tarmac JFC decider two weeks ago.
St Agnes’ clinched the Antrim Junior Football Championship for the first time in the club’s history with a 1-14-0-09 win over Pearses in the decider at Davitt Park.
Ahead 0-8-0-5 at the interval, an early second half goal from David McGaharan gave his side the platform to kick on for victory after the disappointment of losing last year’s decider to St Comgall’s.
It’s been a great season for the Belfast club who won 12 of their 14 games to top division 3 and earn a place in division 2 next season and they went on to top Group 1 of the Junior Championship unbeaten with wins over Ardoyne, O’Donnell’s and St. Malachy’s to earn a semi-final meeting with Eire Og.
They won that one at Woodlands by 1-18 to 1-11 to earn a place in the final against an improving Na Piarsaigh where they finished 8 points winners to qualify for Saturday’s meeting with St. Patrick’s Donagh at Brewster Park.
Paddy Carroll and Conall Turley have been selected on the Antrim All Stars team for this year while Colum Carroll, Caoimhin Floyd, Cormac Flannery, Dan Turley, David McGaharan, Shea Madden and Ronan Gilligan will spearhead the Aggies challenge in County Fermanagh.
The Antrim champions face stiff opposition in the form of St. Patrick’s Donagh who defeated Newtownbutler in a tight Fermanagh final which was in the balance right to the final whistle.
The game had everything – Super scores hard challenges and two teams that refused to accept defeat.
The St. Patrick’s Donagh challenge will be spearheaded by Eamon Maguire (43), who gave a display for the ages which recalled his heroics in that great summer of 2004 when he and Mark Little of Lisnaskea dazzled Armagh in Croke Park as Fermanagh reached its first ever All-Ireland senior football semi-final.
Donagh showed character, courage, and heart in spades to come back from an early five-point blitz from a physically imposing Newtown side.
But they hit back with a great two-pointer from Cameron McBrien, and a superb solo goal from the lively Tiernan Wray brought St. Patrick’s right back into the picture.
Newtownbutler led by 1-9 to 1-7 at the break and by 1-10 to 1-7 on the resumption but two superbly finished goals from Brian McDermott and Jimmy Tormey in the space of four minutes gave Donagh the momentum to press on and take their first county title since 2021.
The record for Antrim clubs in this competition isn’t good though Naomh Comhghall came mighty close to causing an upset against the Donegal champions, St. Patrick’s Muff in Letterkeny last year.
A big crowd is likely to accompany the Woodlands side to Enniskillen on Saturday and a confident St. Agnes will feel they can buck the trend of first round losers in this competition and if they are at their best then they are capable of beating St. Patrick’s Donagh and advance to the next round.