Claudy into Gerry Brown final

Danske Bank Pat King Cup semi-final
St Patrick’s & St Brigid’s Claudy 4-11 De La Salle Downpatrick 3-6
HOLDERS St Patrick’s & St Brigid’s Claudy are just an hour from retaining the Danske Bank Pat King Cup after pulling away in the second half of yesterday’s semi-final against De La Salle Downpatrick at Allen Park, Antrim.
Apart from goals from Niall McGonagle and Rian McCormick in the opening five minutes, it was a poor enough first half from the Derry side and they trailed by 2-6 to 2-2 at half time with quite a few wides and only Chair Melaugh in goals, Adam Murphy at midfield and Tiarnan O’Connor up front preforming at their normal level.
Downpatrick replied to those early strikes with a goal from Dara O’Shea and later in the opening half Rian Burns added a second goal on one of his many forays from wing-back. De La Salle even had a third goal disallowed for square ball.
But after the break Claudy were a more composed team and two fortunate goals from midfielders Adam Murphy and Oisin Kearns-Madden early in the second-half plus the dismissal of Nathan Kelly for a second yellow card offence turned the game in their favour.
Downpatrick fought on however and James Crangle bagged a goal from the rebound after his penalty was saved by Melaugh in the Claudy goals. But they couldn’t close the gap that had opened and Claudy are back in the final.
The Derry side now faces the winners of the second semi-final between Castleblayney College and St Clare’s Ballyjamesduff, which is provisionally pencilled in for January 10th with the decider early the following week.
Claudy: C Melaugh, C McKinney, O Carton, B Cooke, D Johnston, C Donaghy, J McGee, A Murphy (1-1), O Kearns-Madden (1-1), C Gormley, S Watson (0-1), K Hasson (0-1), T O’Connor (0-6, 0-3 frees), N McGonagle (1-1), R McCormick (1-0).
Downpatrick: A Quinn, E Kelly, B McKenna, N Kelly, H O’Bank (0-1), K Brogie, R Burns (1-1), J Crangle (1-1, 0-1 free), J O’Shea, J McConkey, L Ward, P Shearer (0-2), D O’Shea (1-0), D Ennis (0-1), A O’Dywer.

Thanks to Michael McMullan for help with this report