‘Blayney win Rafferty Shield

Danske Bank Rafferty Shield final
Our Lady’s Castleblayney 1-14 St Patrick’s Keady 2-7
A SOLID team performance from Our Lady’s Castleblayney saw them recover from conceding the opening two points to take control in this Danske Bank Rafferty Shield final in Cloghan yesterday.
With Joe Carey, Caolan Reilly, Ciaran Branigan and Phillip McNally excellent in defence and Stephen Mooney always a threat up front, it was really the score taking from their half forward line of Lewis Brady, Shea Casey and Conor Ruddy that impressed as the game progressed.
Keady overly depended for scores on the excellent Thomas Galvin whose 1-6 yesterday means that the Dwyer’s forward has amassed a total of eight goals and 22 points in the three knock-out games. But it wasn’t enough to win, even with good support from midfielder Thomas Farrell.
Castleblayney played with the aid of the stiff breeze in the opening half, but Galvin popped over the opening two scores.
Our Lady’s then settled and a series of points from Stephen Mooney and his half forwards put them into a 0-9 to 1-3 lead at the break, the only stutter coming when Galvin blasted home a Keady goal.
Given the strength of the breeze, three points did not look a strong interval lead. But a fine individual goal from Shea Casey five minutes into the second half cemented Our Lady’s hold on the game and, despite three good points from Galvin, ‘Blayney pulled away during the second half with Darragh McMullan’s late goal a mere consolation score for the south Armagh school.
Our Lady’s : U McMahon, K Carragher, P McNally, B Mallon, C Reilly (0-1), J Carey (0-1), C Branigan (0-1), P Heavin, K McMahon, S Casey (1-1), L Brady (0-3), C Ruddy (0-2), T Hughes, S Mooney (0-4, 0-2 frees), C McQuillan (0-1).
Subs : D McGinn for B Mallon, D Moorehead for T Hughes, C Boyle for C Ruddy
St Patrick’s : G Callaghan, D O’Toole, S Stelmach, C Maguire, A McGleenan, N King, P Nugent, C McGivern, T Farrell, R Greene, O O’Hara, C Carr, D McMullan (1-1), D Mone, T Galvin (1-6, 0-3 frees)
Subs : S O’Reilly for L McGleenan, T Mone for G Callaghan.