St Mary’s, Convoy get their act together when it counts in Junior A Championship

Laurence McMullan and St Mary's, Convoy have turned around their season in a big way after a difficult league campaign to be now bidding for a place in the Junior A championship.

This Saturday, player/manager McMullan and his young team face championship hotshots Carndonagh in Hibernian Park, Burt.

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“It is a tough draw Carndonagh are the favourites to win the championship,” says McMullan, who quickly added: “if we want to win the championship, we were going to have to beat them anyway”.

60 minutes away from a championship final seemed a long way off when St Mary’s drew their last league breath.

Fourteen games, fourteen straight defeats, albeit in the new surroundings of a highly competitive Division Two of the ACFL.

“We had been promoted the year before along with Carndonagh to Division Two for the first time in a number of years.

“We were up playing senior championship teams like Dungloe, Ardara, Aodh Ruadh, Ballyshannon and St Nauls, which was a big step-up.

“But from word go we were struck with injuries. Despite that, apart from one or two games, we avoided big defeats and ran most of the rest to few points and there were one or two games we came close to winning.

“It was difficult to keep going. But once the league was over, we drew a line in the sand and set our stall out and set ourselves a target of reaching the knockout stages.

“The boys all bought in and lads started to return from injury and we got stronger, we won three of our four games in the group and ended up second to Naomh Brid”.

St Mary’s wins were over Naomh Padraig, Lifford, Urris and Robert Emmets and their biggest victory was by far over Naomh Ultan, in last weekend’s quarter final.

Anthony Browne kicked eight points, Niall Sweeney and Conor Donnellan scored the goals and Corrle Lee Brogan posted four points and Donnellan and Pauric Gordon scored a point each, 2-14 to 1-12 win over Naomh Ultan, in the quarter-final.

“Conor and Niall scored the two goals in quick succession in the second quarter, which gave us a bit of a cushion at half-time.

“Naomh Ultan, as we expected, came back at us in the second-half, but we did enough to hold on to win by five points.

“It was a good performance and a big result for us because Naomh Ultan are a good side and they ran Carndonagh close, earlier in the championship.”

But the St Mary’s boss is under no illusion about the challenge facing them in Carndonagh and accepts they are going to have to play well to come out on the right side of the result.

“They are a very good side as they proved in the Division Two ACFL. They ended up with ten points and in mid-table, which was a good achievement for a team up in the division for the first time in years.

“And they were without Conor O’Donnell who is as he showed with Donegal a class player and an All-Star in the waiting. But Ryan Kelly and Antonny Doherty are quality players too.

“Hopefully we are hitting form at the right time. “