HE GAA Senior Football League Division One semi-final: St Mary’s, Belfast 1-10 UCD 0-11
Ranch edge into final
By Daire Walsh
A FIRST half goal from Benny Herron was crucial in Belfield yesterday afternoon, as St. Mary’s University booked their place in the Higher Education Senior Football League Division One Final with a hard-earned victory over a star-studded UCD.
St. Mary’s manager Paddy Tally was thrilled to get over this particular hurdle, and was especially pleased with the way his team played in the face of adversity in the second period.
“Delighted. We were under a lot of pressure, but the boys worked extremely hard. To come out with a win is just fantastic. We were in a good position at half-time, but I think we kicked eleven wides. It looked like it was going to come against us in the second half, but once they came level after five minutes (of the second half), we played the rest of the game, which is very, very heartening,” Tally stated.
Though Mary’s had looked extremely sharp in the early moments, it proved to be extremely tight on the scoreboard, as good scores from Niall Donnelly and Niall Sludden were cancelled out by efforts from Donie Kingston and midfielder Luke Heaney inside the opening ten minutes of play. Mary’s did start to open up the play as the half wore on, though, and they hit back with three unanswered points from Michael Stevenson, Herron and Daniel McBride.
UCD’s Roscommon corner-forward Niall Kilroy did disrupt this scoring burst with a point from play after 17 minutes, but the Belfast men served them a hammer blow just three minutes later when centre-forward Herron kicked clinically to the net from close-in following an enterprising pass inside.
This was no more than Mary’s deserved, but some wasteful shooting towards the end of the half did allow the hosts back into it, and well-taken efforts by Conor Downey, Meath’s Ciaran Lenihan and Ciaran McHugh did reduce the deficit to three (1-6 to 0-6).
UCD then built on this momentum after the re-start, with three quick-fire scores from Donie Kingston (2) and Westmeath centre-fielder John Heslin.
This forced Mary’s to step up to the mark once more, and an inspirational free from goalkeeper Niall Morgan from way out on the right-wing provided them with
a much-needed lift.
Stevenson and Morgan restored their three-point advantage with further points from placed balls in the 42nd and 46th minutes respectively, but UCD were not prepared to let their heads drop, and brought the Mary’s lead back down to the bare minimum with four minutes remaining courtesy of scores from Kingston and David Larkin.
A fourth Stevenson point with two minutes of normal time remaining looked like being enough to get Mary’s over the line, but then UCD conjured up their first real goal-scoring opportunity of the game on the stroke of full-time when Larkin was put through on goal.
The influential Morgan was not to be beaten, however, and he produced a superb point-blank save to secure the victory for Mary’s despite some late pressure from UCD.
When Larkin was bearing down on goal in the dying moments, former Tyrone coach Tally was fearing the worst, but he was relieved to see Morgan coming up with the goods.
“He (Morgan) did very well to pull off a point-blank save. I thought that was it. The boy (David Larkin) went through and he pulled off a point-blank save.
“That was the changing of the game, and it’s a fantastic result,” Tally added.
MATCH STATS
St Mary’s: N Morgan (0-2, 2 frees); S Mullan, N Donnelly (0-1), M Murray; D McCusker, N McParland, B Doyle; C Clarke, D McBride (0-1); N Sludden (0-1), B Herron (1-1), A Forker; M Stevenson (0-4, 3 frees), B Hasson, R Sexton. Subs: J Duffy for McParland (36), A Maguire for Doyle (40).
UCD: E Keogh; J Hayes, G Ryan, C McConnell; C Lenihan (0-1), R O’Carroll, C McHugh (0-1); J Heslin (0-1), L Heaney (0-1); K Dyas, D Larkin (0-1), K McLoughlin; N Kilroy (0-1), D Kingston (0-4, 2 frees), C Downey (0-1). Subs: J Lucan for Downey (44), S Cadden for McHugh (50), A English for
O’Carroll (57), R Basquel for Dyas (58).
Referee: D Gough (Meath).