Danske Bank McDevitt Cup final: Tuesday 12.30pm in Celtic Park, Derry: St Ciarán’s, Ballygawley v St Conor’s, Clady/Kilrea
ST CONOR’S are on an upward curve.
The amalgamation of the existing schools in Clady and Kilrea only occurred at the start of last year and the footballers made an immediate impact by winning the Danske Bank Gerry Brown Cup.
Thus they were promoted into this season’s McDevitt Cup and are now just an hour away from a second provincial title.
In a strong group featuring Holy Cross, Strabane, St Columb’s, Derry and St Ciaran’s, Ballygawley they finished second, their only blemish being a 6-5 to 2-8 defeat to St Ciaran’s in their final game.
Potentially that meant a more difficult route through the knock-out stages, but they have reached a second showdown with Ballygawley although that didn’t look likely when they trailed St Columba’s Glenties in the quarter final by two points entering injury time.
Thanks to a last minute goal from captain Tommy Rodgers, they made it through to a semi-final where they were more comfortable against St Louis, Kilkeel with four goals from Cathaoir O’Neill.
Eoin Mullan, Cathair Kearney, John-Paul Hasson, Ben Murphy and Conor Kearney are others who have contributed well in the school’s effort to land back-to-back Ulster titles.
Although St Ciaran’s topped the qualification group, they managed only a draw with St Columb’s Derry (4-11 to 3-14) and really needed to get a result against St Conor’s in the final game to make it through.
They then moved on from that by scoring five goals in both the quarter-final against Falcarragh and the semi-final against St Patrick’s Keady and come into the final on a good run of form.
Six of the Ballygawley starting team are from the local Errigal Ciaran club including goalie Matt Grimes and half-backs Conn McCaughey and Dara McGinley while Oisin Neill and Callum Quinn are the focus for scores up front.
The sixth Errigal player is Ryan Mallon, who has formed a solid midfield partnership with Oliwier Wasowski from Aghaloo.
Teams don’t reach finals without being able to go on winning runs and both these teams have done that.
St Conor’s will be out for revenge for that group defeat, but the free-flowing football St Ciaran’s are playing at the minute and their eye for goal suggests that the McDevitt Cup could be heading out of Celtic Park towards south Tyrone.
(See 2018 Danske Bank McDevitt Cup final action video at www.irishnews.com)
