St Ronan’s take first Corn Cholmchille title
April 26, 2017
Danske Bank Corn Cholmchille final
St Ronan’s Lurgan 3-10 St Patrick’s Armagh 3-4
St Ronan’s Lurgan held on in a tense finish in the Atheltic Grounds yesterday evening to win their first ever Danske Bank Corn Cholmchille title.
St Patrick’s Armagh followed the pattern of earlier games, by allowing the opposition to build up a lead, but this time their valiant attempt to reel them in came up just short.
Down 2-8 to 0-3 at the break and 3-8 to 1-3 going into the last 20 minutes, they laid siege to the St Ronan’s goals.
Lorcán McKenna’s goal effort from the penalty spot in the 46th minute was brilliantly saved by Thomas Mallon and Cathal Agnew saw another effort come back off the cross-bar.
Mark McSloy and Jake Toal did put the ball in the net, but Armagh couldn’t add to it with Emmett Magee and Mallon again bringing off goal-line clearances.
However over the full hour St Ronan’s were the better team, with Magee and Ciaran Magennis excellent at the back and James Moore and Jack Mulgrew benefiting up front from the hard work of Cianan Campbell and Niall Crilly.
St Patrick’s struggled to contain them in the first half, although they had sound performances from Conor McHugh and Callum Killen at the back and Mark McSloy up front.
McSloy accounted for all of their first half total of 0-3. The teams were level at 0-2 each before James Moore pointed and then PJ McKeown opened a gap with a 17th minute goal.
A 25th minute second goal from Moore stretched the Lurgan advantage to 2-8 to 0-3 at the turnover.
Matthew McCuaghley gave St Patrick’s some hope with a fine goal in the 34th minute, but St Ronan’s hit back four minutes later with Jack Mugrew’s strike.
That kept an 11 points’ advantage for the Lurgan boys and all they needed to do was to hold out at the back for the final quarter and grab an extra couple of scores from Mulgrew and Moore to see them through to lift the Cup.
St Ronan’s : T Mallon, C Maginnis, E Magee, M McStravick capt., J Hannon 0-1, D McCluskey, C Wilson, J Kearney, PJ McKeown 1-0, D Mallon, N Crilly 0-2, C Campbell 0-1, S Devlin, J Mulgrew 1-2, J Moore 1-4.
Subs : R McVeigh for D McCluskey (46), A Towe for D Mallon (52).
St Patrick’s : C McCooe, R Stevens, R O’Hagan, C Killen, O McGivern, L McKenna capt., A Hughes, S McCormack, S Molloy, M McCaughley 1-0, C Agnew, J Toal 1-0, R McAlary, M McKenna, M McSloy 1-4.
Subs : R Nugent for R O’Hagan (15), R O’Hanlon for O McGivern (ht), T Lyttle for S McCormick (35), M Kelly for R McAlary (55).
Referee : Paul Falloon (Down).
