Maghera edge out Abbey in MacRory
Danske Bank MacRory Cup quarter-final play-off
St Patrick’s Maghera 0-11 Abbey CBS 1-7
Abbey CBS stuck well to St Patrick’s Maghera in last night’s Danske Bank MacRory Cup close-encounter at Queen’s Arena, but the greater experience of Maghera, one of the competition favourites, sealed a tight game during the last ten minutes.
A late goal from Aaron Fearon couldn’t halt the progress of the Derry team as they made their way into a last eight tussle with Omagh CBS next week – but they will need to up the ante somewhat if they are to take the next step forward.
Abbey proved very difficult to break down over the game, and their quick breaks out of defence worried Maghera up until the last 12 minutes.
At that point the score stood at 0-7 each. Conor Glass then converted a monster free from over 45 metres into the breeze and a triple substitution breathed new life into Maghera.
An earlier sub Paddy Quigg pointed from play, Glass tapped over a close in free and Shane McGuigan made it 0-11 to 0-7 entering the last five minutes.
Abbey then built a great move from corner-back that resulted in a goal for substitute Fearon as the game entered injury time, but over those added four minutes, the Maghera lead was not really threatened.
The first half went almost score for score with Glass hitting the opening two scores. Ruairí O’Neill’s second point made it 0-3 each and despite Shane McGuigan firing over twice from play, frees from Ronan Reel and Callum O’Neill left it 0-5 each at the break.
Maghera edged ahead twice on the re-start, but frees from Reel kept it level going into the final quarter, before the substitutions and the frees from Glass sealed the issue.
St Patrick’s : S Ó Caiside, P Turner, K Feeny 0-1, C McAlister, S Downey, M McClenaghan, C Glass 0-4, 0-3 frees, P Kearney, J Doherty, C Mulholland, C Darragh, M Mullan 0-1, S McGuigan 0-4, F Higgins.
Subs : P Quigg 0-1 for M Mullan (40), O McWilliams for P Kearney (48), P McLaughlin for S Downey (48), F Kearney for F Higgins (48).
Abbey : J McEvoy, E Kelly, P Murdock, C Cox, A Lynch, D Rooney, O McCaffrey, C O’Neill 0-2, 0-1 free, B McGrath, C Magill, R O’Neill 0-2, R Austin, S Murdock, R Reel 0-3 frees, D Murdock.
Subs : S O’Boyle for O McCaffrey (41), A Fearon 1-0 for S Murdock (48), J Sloan for B McGrath (51), P Markey for D Rooney (56).
