Junior Feis Cup Football Final
St. Brigid’s Cloughmills 0-10 St. Mary’s Rasharkin 1-11
The return of football to the Feis was warmly welcomed by North Antrim official, Darragh O’Mullan as he presented the Junior Feis Football cup to Rasharkin captain, Fergus Quigg after an entertaining final in Cloughmills.
Despite home advantage the ‘Biddies’ came up just short in a competitive Feis final that was in the balance until late in the game when PJ McMullan fired over an injury time point for the visitors to move them four ahead.
Cloughmills had battled hard all the way and after falling 1-2 behind after ten minutes they matched the division 3 leaders all the way and closed the gap to three as the game entered its final phase.
Neil Darragh had put an experimental St. Mary’s in a strong position when he palmed home their opening goal and the corner forward was lively throughout with Thomas McMullan and Thomas Hasson getting the visitors opening points.
Aiden McNeill finally got St. Brigid’s off the mark from a well struck 40 meter free and the bustling Anthony Doran added another before the sweet striking McNeill punished a breech to close the gap to two.
PJ McMullan with a great point and Colm Kennedy’s fisted effort had Rasharkin four ahead before McNeill continued to display his free taking prowess to leave it 1-4 to 0-4 after 22 minutes.
An outrageous effort from Connor Kelly for the hosts left two in it once more but the final scores of the half fell to PJ McMullan and Killian O’Boyle for the men from Dreen to leave them leading by four at the short whistle.
With what is a league decider on the cards this weekend, Rasharkin rang the changes at the start of the second half and Killian O’Boyle extended the Rasharkin lead before Eamonn McNeill marked his introduction when his well struck shot cannoned back into play of the crossbar.
Aiden McNeill finally opened the St. Brigid’s second half account with a great 2 pointer and Cormac McMullan replied for the visitors before another Anthony Doran Orange flag saw the host trail by two with game going down the home straight.
St. Brigid’s gave it everything in the closing stages and another pointed McNeill free and a point from play were cancelled by similar scores from Tiernan O’Boyle, Pearse McTeague and PJ McMullan at the other end as a Daniel McGurk inspired Rasharkin defence closed shop.
Cathal McMullan and Paddy Kelly will now turn their attention to this weekend’s scheduled meeting with Eire Og at Woodlands where a win would give the South West side the division 3 title and they will be hoping to have a full squad available for their biggest game of the season to date.
Darragh O’Mullan presents the man of the match award to Daniel McGurk and the Feis Junior Football Cup to Fergus Quigg
St. Brigid’s: 1 Cathaoir McFerran, 2 Conal McCurdy, 3 Brendan O’Mullan, 4 Rian Dobbin, 5 Stephen McIlroy, 6 Gerard O’Mullan, 7 Johnny Duffin, 8 Eoin Magee, 9 PJ McBriode, 10 Dara McGivern, 11 Eoin Dobbin, 12 Dara Waterson, 13 Aidan McNeill, 14 Ciaran McAuley, 15 Connor Kelly, 30 Anthony Doran,
Subs: Timothy McNeill for Stephen McIlroy, Ryan Donnelly
St. Mary’s: 1 Liam Casey 4 Pearce Kelly 3 Fergus Quigg 2 Daniel McGurk 5 Pearse McTague 6 Fearghal Kennedy 7 Thomas Hasson 8 Cormac McMullan 9 Sean Condron 10 Killian O’Boyle 11 Colm Kennedy 12 Niall Kennedy 13 Neil Darragh 14 Oran McMullan 15 PJ McMullan
Subs: Eamonn McNeill for Sean Condron James Higgins for Niall Kennedy Jason McGregor for Pearce Kelly Caolan McGarrell for Neil Darragh Tiernan O’Boyle for Thomas Hasson
Referee: Joe McCavana (Antrim)
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