FonaCAB Ulster Minor Football Tournament Final – Preview 

Four Masters v Cavan Gaels (1pm throw-in) New Year’s Day 

By Kevin Herron 

Four Masters coach Odie McBride admits that returning to the final of the FonaCAB Ulster Minor Tournament was a goal from the start of the year. 

The Donegal Champions are back in the decider hoping to go a step further than last year when they were defeated 2-07-1-08 by Dungiven in the New Years Day showpiece. 

McBride revealed that the goal was set on their first meeting back, to return to the final and is relishing another big day out on the Shaws Road.

“Early on in the year when we met, we set ourselves the goal to be back here” revealed McBride. 

“We’re here now and we’ll work hard and enjoy Christmas and we’ll look forward to New Years Day. It will be a big day out for the club and hopefully we can do the club and the county proud” 

Masters staged a remarkable comeback against Derry champions O’Donovan Rossa, Magherafelt before blitzing Castleblaney in a one-sided semi-final prior to Christmas and McBride hailed their fantastic team performance. 

“We’re delighted, we came up to the semi-final and didn’t know what to expect” McBride recalled. 

“We watched Castleblaney during the week and we were expecting a big game. The scoreboard maybe deflects the thing because they’d three goal chances in the first half. If they’d have taken them- it changes the whole dynamic. We were fairly ruthless up front and got the couple of goals. It was a fantastic team performance and we’re really happy to be going through to the final”. 

McBride would have been an interested spectator on St Stephens Day when Cavan Gaels got the better of Mayobridge in the second semi-final, courtesy of a 1-07-1-05 win over the County Down outfit in extra time. 

It is the fourth time that the Cavan outfit have reached the decider with their only win coming back in 1999 when they saw off Slaughtneil to lift the Jimmy McConville Cup. 

Manager Ed O’Hanlon was a few years younger than many of his club-mates that lifted the trophy that day and feels that the club have a special connection to the tournament. 

“This is the clubs fourth final and we’ve a long association with the tournament” O’Hanlon acknowledged. 

“Everything gets very excited with the mention of St Pauls around Cavan Gaels. I would have been a couple of years younger than the boys in 99’ and a lot of those lads would be lifelong pals of my own”. 

On their semi-final win over Mayobridge, O’Hanlon admits that their first half showing wasn’t good enough, however- he felt that they controlled the second period and the extra twenty minutes that followed. 

“It’s hard to engage how exciting it was” he felt.  

“I think that Maybobrdige were set up fairly defensively and they were hard to break down. They brought a real, great physicality to the match. We wouldn’t have been overly happy with how we played in the first half but taking out the goal in the second half- I thought we controlled most of the game for the second half on. 

“We were very pleased with extra time, albeit we hit a few wides- again, we dominated possession and albeit there was only a point and two points in it, we looked more of less comfortable in extra time”. 

O’Hanlon believes that the excitement is building around the club and is adamant that both clubs will be raring to go come throw in tomorrow.

“It’s been fantastic, the whole club are certainly behind the team”. 

“Like all clubs, we’ve people from all over the place are getting in touch to wish the team well. We expect a very big crowd up to cheer us on and I’m sure very similar to Four Masters – there is a huge excitement really and at this stage we’re raring to go and get at it”. 

Fona/CAB Ulster Minor Foo5tb all Final

Four Masters (Donegal) v Cavan Gaels (Cavan)

New Year’s Day – Shaw’s Road 1-00pm

Monday’s fona/CAB Ulster Minor Football final has all the ingredients of a cracker with Donegal champions, Four Masters starting as favourites to overcome the challenge of Cavan Gaels

Four Masters came through a tough quarter-final when they edged out a fancied Magherafelt side at Colaiste Feirste while Castleblaney Faughs had two to spare over Armagh champions, Clan na Gael of Lurgan.

Two goals in injury time saw the Donegal champions snatch victory from the jaws of defeat against the Derry champions but they looked to be heading out of the competition at the halfway stage with Rossa leading by seven at the break.

With the wind at their backs in the first half the Magherafelt boys were in total command and after twenty one minutes play they were 0-8 to 0-0 ahead, their brilliant midfielder Conall Higgins scoring six of the points

Four Masters staged the come-back of all come-backs in a totally incredible second half and were awarded a late penalty which centre forward Kevin Muldoon fired to the net, which cut the gap to two points.

Magherafelt must have still thought the game was safe but in the fifth minute of injury time a long ball into their square was punched home by Tiernan McBride to put his team in front, and there was still time for corner forward Turlough Carr to add the insurance point.

Those respective victories for the Donegal and Monaghan champions suggested we were in for a tight semi-final but Four Masters claimed their place in the decider for the second year in succession after they overwhelmed Castleblaney Faugh’s at Shaw’s Road.

Both sides edged their respective quarter final clashes eight days previous but Four Masters picked up where they left off at the end of their dramatic comeback win over Magherafelt, netting within the opening three minutes through Conor McCahill. 

Four Masters had effectively sealed victory inside of 17 minutes with a further 3-01 in the space of four minutes. 

McCahill doubled his goal tally after showing a burst of speed to power in at the by-line and then fire a low shot across the face of goal and into the bottom corner to make it 2-05 to 0-00. 

Within 60-seoconds a third goal arrived, Kevin Muldoon watched on as his shot crashed off the bar, only for Oisin Doherty to palm home from close-range. 

A fantastic curling shot from Turlough Carr doubled his account on the midway point before Doherty saw his low drive whistle past the post. 

Four Masters would push on to win comfortably on a scoreline of 6-14 to 1-1 and will start the New Year’s Day clash with Cavan Gael as favourites.

WHAT ABOUT CAVAN GAELS?

A man of the match performance by the excellent Joshua Shehu led Cavan Gaels to victory over a battling St. Molaise of Irvinestown in their quarter final win at Colaiste Feirste.

The flying centre half forward contributed 0-6 of his side’s total over the hour and his pace and movement made him a constant threat to the Fermanagh champions

Shehu was a constant livewire over the hour and his pace and movement made him a constant threat to the Fermanagh champions but he was only one of an excellent Cavan Gaels side who had strong performers in Ben Tully, Michael Monaghan and Jacub Jaskiewicz.

The Cavan champions were expected to have something to spare in their semi-final meeting with Mayobridge of Down in the semi-final after they had defeated St. Paul’s in the previous round.

It didn’t quite work out that way however and it took a converted free from Ben Tully and Joshua Shehu’s point, either side of the interval in extra time to see Cavan Gaels run out winners by 1-7 to 1-5 and book a return trip to the Shaw’s Road on New Year’s Day to take on Four Masters.

Four Masters are a strong outfit and carry a serious scoring threat with Conor McCahill hitting 3-2 in their semi-final win over the Faughs and Oisin Doherty weighing in with 1-4 and McGonagle and Carr their other goal scores.

This should be an excellent final and Cavan Gaels will certainly not be there to make up the numbers and Conor Doyle, Ciaran Galligan, Bobby Hanley, Ben Tully, Jakub Jaskiewicz and Joshua Shehu are the players who can swing it in their favour.