Abbey CBS 0-9 St. Patrick's Dungannon 0-9

Venue: Monaghan Harps

St Patrick’s Academy Dungannon recovered from a half-time deficit of four points against Abbey CBS on Saturday to earn a deserved replay in their MacRory Cup quarter-final.

The Newry side had the advantage of the wind in the opening half at Gavin Duffy Park in Monaghan and they dominated for long spells in terms of possession, and they’ll feel they should have been further ahead at the break after chalking up seven first half wides. Dungannon, however, displayed good character in the second half as they came back in great style to tie the match.

Seamus Grant gave Abbey CBS a good start with a brilliant individual point in the second minute and it certainly acted as a spur to the Down side because by the 10th minute they were four points to the good after Ruairi Cunningham [2] and half back Kevin Dyas had split the posts.

The Academy were finding it difficult to get any fluency into their game and they were fortunate not to be further adrift as Abbey corner forward Niall Devlin blazed wide of the target with only the keeper to beat. It took Dungannon all of seventeen minutes to open their account via Fergal McAliskey, although Stefan Forker and Tiernan O’Hagan had been guilty of missing scoreable frees prior to that.

Devlin and Grant added to Abbey’s tally but missed opportunities were the order of the day for them and as a result the Academy kept in touch thanks to efforts from Forker and O’Hagan. Cunningham’s third point of the half brought the scoring to a close but at 0-7 to 0-3 down the Academy certainly weren’t out of it with the elements in their favour for the second period. Within a minute Conor Bayne had reduced the deficit with a well-taken point and the team captain was to play a major role in their second half revival as he was to land four more scores before the finish. The Academy had a let-off when a thunderbolt from Cunningham crashed off the bar but it was clear that the Academy were a different side now and three scores from Bayne, two of which were sublime efforts from frees with the outside of his boot from the right wing, left only the minimum between the sides going into the final quarter.

Cunningham’s fourth point of the afternoon left two between them again but that proved to be Abbey’s final score with ten minutes left to play. Brian Toner got on the end of a high ball in from substitute Ryan Pickering to palm the ball over the bar and in the final minute Bayne proved to be his side’s saviour with another superbly struck free with the outside of his boot after Pickering had been fouled.

Abbey CBS: Cathal Murdock, Mark Digney, Darren Fegan, Rory Grant, Darren Rowland, Colm Murney, Kevin Dyas, Kevin McKernan, Ruairi Digney, Ciaran Coffey, Seamus Grant, Daniel Clarke, Niall Devlin, Cathal Magee, Ruairi Cunningham. Subs: Gerard McGarvey for Murney, Richard Gilmore for Clarke

St Patrick’s Dungannon: Gary Mallaghan, Philip Kelly, Mark McKenna, Aidan Cunningham, Aidan Gervin, Christopher McKenna, Kevin O’Neill, Stefan Forker, Patrick McGlinchey, Brian Toner, Conor Bayne, Patrick Doherty, Fergal McAliskey, Tiernan O’Hagan, Ciaran Quinn. Subs: Blaine Kilgallon for McGlinchey, Christopher Bullock for Cunningham, Ryan Pickering for Doherty, Raymond McBennett for Quinn

Abbey CBS Scorers: Ruairi Cunningham 0-4, Niall Devlin 0-2, Seamus Grant 0-2, Kevin Dyas 0-1

St Patrick’s Scorers: Conor Bayne 0-5, Stefan Forker 0-1, Fergal McAliskey 0-1, Tiarnan O’Hagan 0-1, Brian Toner 0-1