Pauric O’Donnell happy as Abbey VS take their MacRory campaign into the new year

Abbey Vocational School manager Pauric O’Donnell was pleased with how his side made it through the first knockout match of their MacRory Cup campaign.

The Donegal Town school topped their group of four, being rewarded with a draw against Cathair Doire.

While they didn’t get their home venue due to a lack of pitch availability on Wednesday, with the game postponed a day due to the red weather warning, they still battled well on the astro in Owenbeg.

Trailing against the breezy conditions by 0-5 to 0-4 at the break, they roared into life in the second half and goals from Eoghan Gallagher, Conor McCahill and Jay Cullen ensured their passage into the quarter-finals with a 3-11 to 0-9 win over the Derry amalgamation.

“Once we got used to it, we played well enough, but it was hard to play with the breeze as well. I thought we did really well in the first half because we didn’t give them many opportunities for big scores.

“We’re happy with where we are at, we’re into the play-offs after Christmas and that was the ambition, to still be alive in the competition after Christmas so we’re happy with that.

“The goals were big scores, it was always going to be hard to get a goal into the breeze, but once they went in, it put a bit of daylight in the game.

It’s a first year in charge for O’Donnell, who took over from Stuart McFadden after leading them to the MacRory Cup final last year, where they lost out by 0-12 to 2-5 to St Pat’s, Maghera.

“I’ve had some of these boys coming through at different levels between Under-14s and 16s and in different panels. We decided to give it a go this year and it has been working good so far.

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“Quite a few of them were involved in the panel last year, there was a big squad and we have a big squad again this year and that’s something we’re trying to do, get lads involved and exposed at this level so they can see what’s going on, even if they’re not playing.”

The team is dominated by the successful Four Masters underage side, who recently won two in a row at U-21 and four in a row at minor level.

Eoghan Gallagher and Ethan Wasson are from Naomh Bríd and started on Wednesday, while St Naul’s man Christian Ward also started, with the other twelve coming from the Donegal Town club, who have been so dominant.

“It does help, they’re used to that exposure of the big days out, which helps us. It’s our job then to blend the other boys into the team and get them to gel in, and it has been so far, so good.

“There’s a long way to go yet. Last year was our first time in the competition and we learned from it that the competition really comes alive after Christmas, so we’re happy to be there.

“Daniel McGinty is out long term and we had a few boys out with flu. But we’ll reassess them later, a lot of them boys are playing for Four Masters this weekend, so we’ll let them off and see what they’re like when they come back to us.”