The Abbey’s Corn na n-Óg team crashed out of this year’s competition in a pulsating quarter final against a strong St. Mary’s Belfast team. From the opening whistle the action was non-stop. Within two and a half minutes the Abbey found themselves eight points behind, following two early goals from Declan Lynch and Conor Mc Clelland. The nightmare start continued when the shell-shocked Abbey defence conceded a third goal on 10 minutes, Lynch again got on the end of a speculative ball to crash the ball past the helpless Tony Fearon in the Abbey goals. The Abbey desperately tried to settle themselves and a Niall Cunningham point finally got them off the mark. With the wind at their backs, the Belfast school dominated the entire half, adding a fourth goal on 25 minutes from Darren Boyd and two long range frees from half forward Brendan Conlon. Patrick Quinn then broke free for the Abbey just before the break to give them the slenderest of hopes with a well-taken goal.
That left the half time score, St. Mary’s 4-6 (18) Abbey 1-2 (5).
Without doubt this game will be long remembered for the second half display by the Abbey. From the moment the ball was thrown in for the start of the second period, the Abbey set about closing the massive thirteen-point gap opened by the Belfast school. James Morgan got them off to the perfect start netting in the first minute of the second half. Michael Clarke, Ryan Hudson and Keith Sloan began to dominate exchanges in the middle of the field and the Newry boys tagged on another four points without reply, two a piece for Cunningham and Clarke. Midway through the second half Niall Cunningham picked up a loose ball and finished superbly to the Belfast net.
Amazingly in a fifteen minute burst the half time lead had been cut to just three points. With their tails up the Abbey continued in search of more scores and Cunningham, was their main provider. The Shamrocks player notched up his fourth point of the game and when the industrious James Morgan added a further point the Abbey had reduced the gap to just one point. With minutes remaining, Eamon Murphy, who had been excellent in the second half, found himself one on one with the Belfast goalkeeper and his first goal of the season put the Abbey in to the unlikeliest of leads.
Then came what appeared to be a decisive blow to the comeback, Darren Boyd scored a breakaway goal for St. Mary’s in a rare attack that broke through the Abbey’s resolute rearguard in which Seán Mc Donnell and Ethan Toner were outstanding. The Abbey’s response was instant, from the resulting kickout, Michael Clarke picked up the ball and delivered to Eamon Murphy, who flicked a delicate pass to Patrick Quinn who crashed the ball to the net to re-establish the Abbey’s two point lead with a minute gone in injury time.
St. Mary’s tried desperately to work a score but were unable to break through the Abbey defence, that is however until the sixth minute of injury when Brendan Conlon fisted to the net to break the Abbey hearts.
Final Score: Abbey 5-9, St. Mary’s Belfast 6-7