Our Lady’s Castleblayney 2-9 St Pius X Magherafelt 1-10

Our Lady’s Castleblayney secured their ticket back to the Athletic Grounds in Armagh on St Patrick’s Day with a hard working victory over St. Pius X Magherfelt in Lurgan last Saturday. A strong defensive performance was the foundations for a dominant Our Lady’s display in the opening half as they played with pace and purpose all over the field. The first half was a succession of scores for Our Lady’s after Aaron Courtney’s quick opening point. They were four up, two from James Wilson, by the ninth minute when Mark McGrogan finally got Magherafelt off the mark with a free. Two minutes later however a high ball towards towering full-forward Kieran Duffy wasn’t properly dealt with and James Wilson pounced for his first goal as Our Lady’s built up a commanding1-6 to 0-1 lead at the break. However by the end of the third quarter a St. Pius revival had them within a point of Our Lady’s entering the last ten minutes with everything to play for. However Our Lady’s regrouped and showed plenty of determination and strength of character to grind out the result. A second goal from James Wilson and points from the same player and Frank Connolly seen Our Lady’s lead by 5 points with minutes remaining. Although St Pius X rallied with three late scores from Caolan Devlin, Castleblayney had done enough to win their second knock-out and qualify for their second Mac Larnon final in three years where they will meet St. Ciaran’s Ballygawley on March 17^th in the Athletic grounds.

Our Lady’s: Kian O’Connor, Tommy Geehan, Calum Blanche, Sean Markey, Craig Callan, Frank Connolly (0-1f), John Gorman, Tiernan Duffy, Hugh McGinn, Gavin Kelly, David Hanley, Daragh Drury, James Wilson (2-5, 3f), Kieran Duffy, Aaron Courtney (0-3).
Subs: Daniel Caraher for K Duffy (36), Mark Mooney for S Markey (50), S Markey for F Connolly (BC 54), Cormac McKenna for A Courtney (58).

St Pius X: Ronan Cassidy, Paul McCrystal, Aodhan Conway, Jamie Gribben, Iarliath Donaghy, Aaron Rocks, Sean Monaghan, Joseph Maybin, Paudie McGrogan (0-1), Aidan McGlone (0-1), Caolan Devlin (0-7, 4f, 1 sideline), Oran Kerr, Nathan Scullion, Conor Quinn (1-0), Mark McGrogan (0-1f).
Subs: Ciaran McKeever for O Kerr (28), Eoin Lynn for C McKeever (46), Oran Kerr for I Donaghy (59).

Referee: Kieran Eannetta (Tyrone)