Macartan’s can’t contain Maghera goal-men

Danske Bank MacRory Cup
St Patrick’s Maghera 5-12 St Macartan’s Monaghan 1-11
ST MACARTAN’S Monaghan may have scored oftener than St Patrick’s Maghera in the opening half of this final Danske Bank MacRory Cup tie, but they were still in arrears at the break to a slicker Maghera side who were very clinical in front of goals.
The game was switched in the morning to Emyvale and the Monaghan venue held up well to allow a free-flowing game in which Maghera always looked the more likely winner although St Macartan’s gave a good account of themselves with Chrissy Flood and Oisín Fagan leading the charge.
The Sem opened well to go 0-2 to 0-1 up after six minutes through Mattie Maguire and Conor McCooey, but Daithí McLaughlin slipped in for the opening goal a few minutes later and Maghera never subsequently lost the lead.
Points from Maguire and Niall McKenna narrowed the gap to 0-4 to 1-2 before the second Maghera goal arrived curtesy of Eunan Mulholland in the 25th minute.
Maghera turned around with a 2-3 to 0-6 advantage at the break and Alex Doherty stretched that with a couple of points and a goal during the third quarter. Doherty had a fine game overall as had the first half goal-scorers and Conor Milne.
Conleth McShane bagged a fourth Maghera just before Gary Mohan scored the goal for St Macartan’s in the 50th minute and Doherty capped off a good day for him personally and for his team when he completed a good move for the fifth Maghera goal a short time later.
Maghera will now play their Armagh namesakes in the Danske Bank MacCormack Cup semi-final at the start of January while St Macartan’s will be keeping an eye on Tuesday’s elimination play-off between St Mary’s Magherafelt and Abbey CBS as the winner will be their next opponent in the MacRory at the end of January.
St Patrick’s : Alex Doherty 2-6, 0-2 frees, Daithí McLaughlin 1-1, Conleth McShane 1-1, Eunan Mulholland 1-0, Fintan Bradley 0-1, Tiarnan McHugh 0-1, PJ McAleese 0-1, Pat Shivers 0-1.
St Macartan’s : Gary Mohan 1-1, Mattie Maguire 0-4, 0-3 frees, Conor McCooey 0-3, 0-2 frees, N McKenna 0-1, Lochlainn Power 0-1, Conor McCrystal 0-1