Patrician through to 2018 MacRory Cup football

Danske Bank MacRory Cup

Patrician Carrickmacross 2-12 St Mary’s CBGS Belfast 1-5

Patrician High Carrickmacross assured themselves of action in January in the Danske Bank MacRory Cup with this comfortable 10 points’ win in Hilltown yesterday.

Indeed there could well have been a wider gap between the teams had not Ciaran Donnelly’s high punt for a point in the final seconds of the first half not been fumbled by the Carrick defence and end up in the net.

That pulled St Mary’s CBGS back into the game at 1-6 to 1-2, but in reality there was little evidence that they could turn it around in the second half despite a good shift from the likes of Eoin McMenamin, Niall Ward and Cormac McGettigan.

Sean Jones put Patrician in control of the tie by chipping in the opening goal after six minutes and Carrick were impressive in the first half despite scoring just six points, the pick of which was a fine run and score from corner-back Tiarnan McCourt.

St Mary’s didn’t get a chance to build on the goal at the interval and Patrician were back into their stride when Sean Burns finished to the net for their second goal after 35 minutes.

Andrew Burns was in excellent form as Patrician confirmed their place in the quarter-final play-offs – and a Clones fixture for their next game in the competition at the end of January.

Patrician : Sean Jones 1-2, Sean Burns 1-2, Andrew Woods 0-3, Jordan Morris 0-2, Barry Kearns 0-1, Tiarnan McCourt 0-1, Ciaran McNulty 0-1

St Mary’s : Ciaran Donnelly 1-0, Dominic McEnhill 0-4, 0-3 frees, Corey Fogarty 0-1