St Ronan’s through to MacCormick Cup semi-final
Danske Bank MacRory Cup
St Ronan’s Lurgan 1-9 St Malachy’s Castlewellan 1-7
Ten minutes from the end of this Danske Bank MacRory Cup tie in Killeavy, St Malachy’s looked like they were on their way to a first ever win in the competition when Niall Cassidy’ high delivery fell kindly for Conor McCrickard to poke home from close range.
It put Castlewellan 1-6 to 0-5 up in a tight, low-scoring encounter, but 60 seconds later St Ronan’s hit back with a similar type of goal, a long ball in was fielded by Tiarnan Kelly and despatched to the corner of the net.
Jack Leneghan tied the teams at 1-6 each in the 54th minute only for the impressive Aaron Devlin to shoot his fourth point in reply.
However Lurgan finished strongly with points each from Leo Monteiro, Jack Leneghan and Adam Loughran to confirm their place in the semi-finals of the MacCormick Cup, a competition that they won for the first time last season.
Defences were on top in the opening half and St Ronan’s led by 0-3 to 0-2 at the break. Conor Shields, Brendan McKay and Conor McAnulty excelled for St Malachy’s and Adam Mulholland did a fine marking job on Conor McCrickard at the other end with good support from Callum Magee.
Lurgan introduced Jamie Haughey for the second half and Tiarnan Kelly turned in an impressive half-hour, but not before points in the third quarter from Devlin (two frees) and Niall Cassidy turned the tide in Castlewellan’s favour at 0-5 to 0-3.
Lurgan however responded well to the goal and finished strongly to assure themselves of another game this term and knock-out football in the New Year
St Ronan’s : Tiarnan Kelly 1-1, Adam Loughran 0-2, Jack Leneghan 0-2, Eoin McConville 0-1 free, Rioghan Meehan 0-1, Aaron McCreanor 0-1, Leo Monteiro 0-1.
St Malachy’s : Conor McAnulty 1-0, Aaron Devlin 0-4, 0-3 frees, Conor McCrickard 0-2, 0-1 free, Niall Cassidy 0-1.
