Red card costly for Our Lady’s

Danske Bank MacLarnon Cup quarter-final

Scoileanna Inis Eoghain 2-8 Our Lady’s Castleblayney 1-10

Two goals early in the second half from Josh Conlon turned this Danske Bank MacLarnon Cup quarter-final in the Mid Ulster Sports Arena on its head and sent Scoileanna Inis Eoghain into a derby semi-final with St Eunan’s Letterkenny.

Up until the goals, Inis Eoghain hadn’t looked like winning the game with Our Lady’s Castleblayney turning over at the break with a deserved 1-5 to 0-4 lead.

And that was despite Our Lady’s losing Jason Irwin to a yellow card in the 15th minute after picking up a black card earlier. By then the Monaghan team was really dominant and led by 1-4 to 0-0 with Tiernan Duffy finishing well from 20 metres after a flowing movement down the pitch.

Conor O’Donnell hit all four Inis Eoghain scores from frees during the second quarter but Oisin McGonagle opened their account from play shortly after the break. Although Robbie Hanratty responded, Conlon then took centre stage.

For the first goal he received the ball on the right close to the bye-line, held off his opponent and fired home in the 35th minute. Five minutes later another move down the right hand side resulted in a pass across the face of the goals and Conlon rushed in to palm home from close range to put his side ahead for the first time at 2-5 to 1-7.

Although David Hanley sent over a glorious equalising point in the 48th minute, the Donegal boys pulled clear with points from O’Donnell (a free), sub Lee McLaughlin and Oisin Hession.

In injury time Hanratty closed the gap to a single point and David Irwin had a very late chance of an equaliser but he pulled his shot just wide and Inis Eoghain survived to set up the Donegal derby next Saturday.

Scoileanna Inis Eoghain : D McCallion, B Doherty, C Doherty capt., L Mullins, M Mulholland, D Doherty, C O’Donnell 0-5 frees, C Bambrick, O McGonagle 0-1, L Bradley, R Heggarty, O Hession 0-1, D Houghton, A Craig, J Conlon 2-0.
Subs : L McLaughlin 0-1 for L Mullins (black card), J McLaughlin for B Doherty.

Our Lady’s : K O’Connor, C Merrick, C Blanche, H Brennan, C Callan, S Markey 0-1, L Kierans, T Duffy 1-1, K Duffy, R Hanratty 0-2, D Hanley 0-4, 0-2 frees, G Kelly, F McGeough, J Irwin 0-1, Mark Mooney 0-1
Subs : D Irvine for G Kelly, C Corrigan for F McGeogh