Abbey 2-04 St Louis 0-09: WHAT a finish! What an absolutely incredible finish! Ciaran Coffey snatched a dramatic, last-gasp goal to win the MacRory Cup for the Abbey.
Two minutes into injury time with St Louis, Kilkeel two points in front and their fans ready to invade the pitch to acclaim their heroes, Coffey struck.
The lad, known to his pals as the Joker, latched onto a deflected Colm Murney pass before slamming low into the net past a heartbroken Gavin Joyce.
Less than 60 seconds later the referee Jimmy McKee blew the full time whistle as the Abbey players went wild with delight while by contrast rivals St. Louis, almost en mass, sank to their knees in despair after losing their second MacRory final in a row.
It was a high-noon style finish to the match. And to be truthful it was so hard not to feel sorrow for St Louis. Originally they looked gone as the Abbey stormed into a five-point lead in the opening seven minutes. But the team, bossed by Steven McVeigh and Niall McAleenan, showed amazing character to square the match and go two points in front with five minutes left.
And for long periods, led by their skipper, the awesomely talented and the Iggy Jones Man of the Match, Martin Clarke, they edged the contest. Also massive players for the Kilkeel team were: the rock-like full back Hugh Magee, and the midfield duo of Peter Fitzpatrick and the tenacious Kevin Quinn, the latter who had arguably his best game in a St Louis shirt.
And though the Newry side poured forward in the last five minutes, few but the most fervent Abbey supporters, would have forecast victory. It seemed the Saints were going to claim their first MacRory Cup.
But fate can be so cruel.
On the other hand the Abbey stuck to their tasks like the proverbial leeches. Even when all appeared lost they never chucked in the towel. And they had some wonderful performances. Kevin Dyas, despite having the unenviable job of shadowing Martin Clarke for three quarters of the game, and coming of second best on many occasions, the Armagh minor showed his undoubted class, his skill and his enormous will to win. Indeed just after the break he denied Clarke a goal with his dogged persistence and tackle that forced the St Louis hotshot to fire narrowly wide.
Dyas also hit the bar and was the man behind most of the good Abbey work.
Also having marvellous matches for the Courtenay Hill school were centre-half forward Seamus Grant who never stopped running, never stopped battling, the slimly built full forward Sean Murdock, who proved to be quite a handful for the Kilkeel defence and of course skipper Kevin McKernan who worked his socks off for the Abbey cause.
After the match chief coach Jody Gormley was honest in his assessment of the game and said: “It was a tight battle and we didn’t play particularly well. But we have instilled into our lads never to quit until the referee blows his whistle.
“We worked extremely hard from September and we got our just deserts. We won this MacRory Cup the hard way. In every match we were the underdogs.”
The Abbey got a dream start. A Sean Murdock free gave them the lead on five minutes and sixty seconds later they hit goal-dust.
Dyas, with a quick free, found Murdock who picked out the unmarked Gerard McGarvey with the pass of the match. And the half forward didn’t spurn the opportunity as he crashed a superb left-footer into the net.
On seven minutes Niall Devlin made it 1-02 to nil for the Newry side with a neat point from play.
It looked bad for St Louis at this stage but they refused to panic.
And indeed they chipped away at the Abbey advantage. Two Clarke frees narrowed the gap and then the skipper added another on 24 minutes with a brilliant score from way out on the left.
And one minute later there was just a single point between the sides as Luke Toner fired over a free.
Three minutes after the break Clarke squared matters when he fisted over; but a couple of minutes later a Murdock point, after a flowing Abbey move, restored the Newry lead. It was the first Abbey score in almost half an hour.
That man Clarke however, levelled things with another of his specialities, a finely struck drive from an acute angle.
And on 40 minutes the Saints finally took the lead, Gerard McCartan firing over from play.
Still the Abbey battled back with Colm Murney, nine minutes later, scoring from a great 35-yard effort after Seamus Grant had set him up.
Eight minutes left and after McKernan fouled him, Clarke dusted himself down and popped the resulting close-range free over the bar. And it looked like the MacRory Cup was heading towards the Mourne Mountains as, on 55 minutes, Luke Toner knocked over a left-wing free.
Two points ahead and it seemed it just wasn’t to be an Abbey day, especially when Kevin Dyas crashed a thunderous 40-yard shot off the crossbar.
But then came that unbelievable finish and a fairy tale ending for the Abbey and Ciaran Coffey.
Congratulations to the Abbey players and coaching staff, Jody Gormley, Sean Gallagher, Mark Grogan and Frank Quinn who all worked so hard to bring the MacRory Cup to Courtenay Hill. Also to the likes of Principal Dermot McGovern, Vice Principal, Val Kane, John Raft, Aidan O’Rourke etc., who have waited so long for this victory.
A wee story. After the game, on the Casement Park pitch, I ran into two lifelong friends, Chris Coffey and his wife Marie, (I was actually best man at their wedding) – the proud parents of the Abbey match-winner Ciaran.
Chris, a former teacher at the Abbey, confessed that he was about to leave the ground, convinced that the Newry side had lost, when his eldest son Chris said: “Da wait, our Ciaran has the ball.” And the next thing the ground erupted.
On the other hand Marie never gave up hope and put the win down to the power of prayer. She showed me her hand that still held a tight grip on a pair of Rosary Beads. Marie said four decades of the Rosary in the last three minutes.
The moral of the story: if God is on your side you cannot lose.
Abbey CBS: Cathal Murdock, Mark Digney, Colm Murney, Rory Grant, Darren Rowland, Kevin Dyas, Ciaran Coffey, Kevin McKernan, Richard Gilmore, Gerard McGarvey, Seamus Grant, Daniel Clarke, Ruairi Cunningham, Sean Murdock and Niall Devlin with subs: Ruairi Digney and Cathal Magee.
St Louis: Gavin Joyce, Stephen Rafferty, Hugh Magee, Andrew Sloan, Gerard McCartan, John Fitzpatrick, Fergal Doyle, Kevin Quinn, Peter Fitzpatrick, Christopher Morgan, Martin Clarke, Patrick Bourke, Christopher Killen, Gary Trainor and Luke Toner.
By Tony Bagnall