Danske Bank O’Mahoney Cup (hurling) final
St Mary’s, Magherafelt 2-4 Rathmore Grammar 0-7
GOALS from Conan Devlin 40 seconds into the second half and another from Michael Kearney with 8 minutes to go proved the deciding scores in this evenly contested Danske Bank O’Mahoney Cup final at Dunsilly on Tuesday afternoon.
St Mary’s led 0-3 to 0-1 with 15 minutes of the first half gone, with Michael Kearney (two) and Kevin Johnston the players on target, but at this point the boys from Rathmore had shaded possession but were unable to turn opportunities into scores.
The Belfast side managed to find their range late in the half with Garret Finnegan pointing a free and Thomas Doran adding a fine effort from play to leave the sides level at half time.
At this stage Rathmore must have fancied their chances of pushing on in the second half but a goal from Conan Devlin for the south Derry side in their first attack changed all that.
Rathmore came back with points from Garret Finnegan and Sé Walls to close the gap to the minimum with six minutes of the second half gone but again it was St Mary’s who came up with a goal, the excellent Michael Kearney firing home from close range.
Rathmore fought to the finish as Finnegan pointed another free which was immediately cancelled out by a similar effort from Kearney. Then Finnegan added a late reply for the Belfast side but it came too late to affect the result.
This was a fine game of hurling between two evenly matched sides with Garret Finnegan and Sé Walls catching the eye for Rathmore, while the winners were well served by Conan Devlin, Kevin Johnston and Michael Kearney
Photograph: Paddy McIlwaine