DANSKE BANK Hogan Cup

Maghera power through to Hogan final

March 31, 2013

St Patrick’s Maghera 3-8 St Gerald’s Castlebar 1-7

from Kevin Kelly in Brewster Park for Irish News

A “touch of Glass” from the youngest player on the field helped propel St Patrick’s Maghera into the Hogan Cup final at the expense of St Gerald’s Castlebar at Brewster Park on Saturday afternoon.

Fifteen year old Conor Glass lined out with number two on his back but he popped up everywhere throughout the field in a man of the match performance that included two outstanding individual goals.

The first came two minutes before the break to give his side a lead that they were never to lose whilst the second was an even better strike at a crucial stage of the second half after his side had gone the entire third quarter without raising a flag.

Joint manager Martin McConnell was glowing in his praise of the Glen youngster afterwards.

“Conor is an exceptional player who is only a fourth year so he has another three MacRory Cup campaigns ahead of him but to be honest he is only focussed on this year, said Martin.

“We brought him in after Christmas and he hasn’t looked back. He is young, courageous and just wants to play football and he scored two unbelievable goals there today. He is just one of 34 lads who have worked their socks off to get us to a Hogan Cup final, he is a team player.”

That final on April 13^th will be against St Patrick’s Navan and Martin admitted afterwards that they have work to do ahead of that Croke Park showdown

“It’s always good to have something to work on after every game. If we had won today by fifteen points people would have been saying that this team is unbeatable etc, etc. We now play Navan in the All-Ireland Final at Croke Park and we are going to have to perform to a serious level if we are going to win it.”

The sides shared the opening four points of the contest with Ronan Carolan and Neil McNicholl on target for their respective sides but then St Gerald’s dominated the rest of the opening quarter. James Durcan knocked over a couple of frees while full back Mark McHugh converted a “45”, that kick coming as the result of a fine save from Ciaran McCloy to deny Carolan a goal.

That was as good as it got for St Gerald’s as they failed to score in the remainder of the half. Peter Cassidy pointed from a free as well as from play before Glass took centre stage when he cut in along the endline past a couple of challenges before somehow squeezing the ball home past David McHale.

It was a score that gave the Derry lads a tremendous boost and two minutes later McHale was picking the ball out of the back off the net again after Gerald Bradley finished in style low to the bottom left hand corner. Danny Tallon added a point as the Danske Bank MacRory Cup champions led 2-5 to 0-5 at the break.

Michael Plunket opened the second half scoring and after Maghera had missed a number of chances St Gerald’s midfielder Eamon Regan bustled his way through for a 40^th minute goal.

Questions were now being asked of Maghera but Glass came to their aid when he showed composure beyond his years to produce a superb finish to the roof of the net to open his side’s second half account. That score knocked the stuffing out of their opponents and team captain Conor Carville weighed in with a brace of points to ensure victory.

Scorers:

St Patrick’s Maghera: C Glass 2-0, G Bradley 1-0, C Carville 0-2, P Cassidy 0-2 [1f], D Tallon 0-2,N McNicholl 0-1, S O’Hara 0-1 [1f]

St Gerald’s Castlebar: J Durcan 0-4 [3f],E Regan 1-0, M McHugh 0-1 [45], M Plunket 0-1, R Carolan 0-1

St Patrick’s Maghera – C McCloy, C Glass, D Hughes, O Hegarty, C Mulholland, C Carville, P Hagan, J Kearney, P Cassidy, C O’Doherty, G Bradley, N McNicholl, C Gallagher, S O’Hara, D Tallon.

Subs – C Convery for O’Hara, N Toner for McNicholl,N Gormanfor Mulholland, D McFaul for Hagan

St Gerald’s Castlebar – D McHale, K McNally, M McHugh, K Egan, P Durcan, M Hall, J Lydon, R Coleman, E Regan, J Gannon, M Plunket, S Conlon, R Carolan, A Murphy, J Durcan.

Subs – C Dravins for McNally, M Ruane for Gannon,N Jordanfor Lydon, J O’Malley for Carolan

Referee –N Mooney, Cavan