PATRICIAN High, Carrickmacross captain Mark Hanratty is hoping to add to the school’s successes at MacLarnon Cup level when they square up to Dean Maguirc, Carrickmore at Celtic Park on Sunday.
In the last two years, the Monaghan school came so close in the MacRory Cup, losing out to Omagh and Dungannon by narrow margins, and they will hope that it’s a case of third time lucky against Tyrone opponents.
Inniskeen clubman Hanratty is quick to dispel the favourites’ tag.
“I wouldn’t say that we are going into the game as favourites, you are only favourites when you come out of a competition winning it,” he said.
“Dean Maguirc are a strong side and a good school. They may have been playing in the Markey Cup two years ago, while we were in the MacRory Cup, but that doesn’t mean anything and they will definitely be the best opponents that we will face in the MacLarnon Cup this year, so we have to be ready for the battle.
“It’s a big occasion for the school and we are determined to go out and give it our best shot. It will be the biggest occasion of my life and I’m really delighted to be part of it and playing.
“I was in the panel last year when we had a decent run in the MacRory only to lose out on penalties to Dungannon in the knock-out stages.
“Our panel wasn’t as strong this year and the decision was made to go into the MacLarnon Cup and try and win that and then maybe compete in the MacRory next year again.”
Patrician are a side who can play good football, but they are also capable of grinding out a result if need be and no doubt they will go to the wire if they have to in pursuit of glory.
“We scored three goals in our first game against St Marys, Belfast and won that comfortably but the next day it was a lot closer against Aquinas and we only came out on top 0-7 to 0-3 in a low-scoring encounter,” adds Hanratty
“The football wasn’t pretty that day but our mentality is that winning is a habit and we managed to grind the game out and get a win.
“The quarter-final against Castlewellan was our toughest game so far. To be honest there were nerves shown that day as a lot of our boys hadn’t been in that situation before.
“It showed in the first half as we were in a bit of trouble trailing by four points. There was no sense of panic, though, as we all just wanted that win and we ground out a result in the second half.
I don’t think that it was a great win for us because if we had been knocked out that day we know ourselves that we wouldn’t have done ourselves justice this season.”
