Armagh and Patrician in MacRory draw

St Patrick’s Armagh 2-13 Patrician Carrickacross 2-13
PATRICIAN High Carrickmacross finished strongly in Crossmaglen yesterday afternoon to take probably a deserved share of the spoils against a St Patrick’s Armagh side that has looked very good in these Group D games.
Armagh held a six points’ lead going into the final ten minutes, but Sean Finn hit a glorious shot into the top corner to spark Patrician’s comeback. Sean Jones was excellent for Patrician throughout and he added a free, but Justin Kieran and then Michael Conroy added points from frees for Armagh and it looked that Carrick had missed their chance.
Again Jones hit the target, his ninth point of the afternoon and the equaliser arrived in the first minute of added time when a promising Carrick move along the end-line ended in front of goal with the ball breaking loose. However Ryan McNulty reacted quickest to smash it low to the net.
Jones for Carrick and Conroy for Armagh were the dominant figures on the pitch, both in general play and in picking off scores and each player hit the target four times in the opening half, three of Conroy’s from frees, all of Jones’ tally coming from open play.
Conroy dominated the third quarter. He started with a point from a free, then scored the opening goal on 36 minutes to put his team 1-9 to 0-7 ahead and added two more points from play as Jones tried his best at the other end to get his side going. When Oisin Hughes hit the net for Armagh’s second goal in the 46th minute they looked to be on the home straight.
Finn’s brilliant strike sparked off a strong finish, but Patrician will now have a difficult enough eliminator next week against probably St Patrick’s Cavan, while Armagh are into the MacCormack Cup semi-finals against the winners of Group B which will not be decided until Tuesday evening when St Macartan’s meet St Patrick’s Maghera.
Armagh : Michael Conroy 1-8, 0-5 frees, Oisin Hughes 1-0, Justin Kieran 0-2 frees, Dillon Horsfield 0-1, Lorcan Coulter 0-1, Micheál McGleenan 0-1.
Patrician : Sean Finn 1-1, Ryan McNulty 1-0, Sean Jones 0-9, 0-3 frees, Oisin O’Hanlon 0-1, Jack McMahon 0-1, Liam McDonald 0-1.