Four Masters minor journey 2023 continues on Sunday next

There are special days in sport and then there was Saturday last at Sportlann Colaiste Feirste, when Four Masters somehow snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in added time in the fonacab Ulster Minor Club Tournament.

With the clock showing 59.30 Four Masters trailed Derry champions, Magherafelt by five points (0-13 to 0-8) but by the time the referee blew the final whistle with almost 68 minutes played the Donegal Town boys were winners by two.

Good work by Kevin Muldoon saw Tiarnan McBride win a penalty and Muldoon blasted home the first goal on 62 minutes. Just short of three minutes later and heroic work from Turlough Carr led to him finally delivering a perfect long delivery and McBride was on hand once again, this time to get his fingertip to send the ball to the net and a one point lead.

And just to underline their great finish, captain Callum McCrea was instrumental in twice taking the ball out of defence under serious pressure and then up stepped Turlough Carr once more to fire over the final point with the last kick of the game.

The excitement of those final minutes was captured by Jerome Quinn and has been viewed many times over the weekend and will be reviewed for many a year.

Tiarnan McBride is upended for the match-turning Four Masters penalty 

The Four Masters sideline was a sea of unbridled joy and among them was joint manager, Odie McBride, who says the finish will stay with him for the rest of his life.

“It was hectic but something we will never forget,” said McBride.

On an evening when the elements made football difficult, the Derry side were out of the blocks like hares and were dominant with the wind at their back. The Donegal Town side had no answer with the Magherafelt star player Conall Higgins in devastating scoring form.

“Their first six shots, they shot five of their first six and hit the post with the other one. Your man, Higgins’ shooting was off the Richter scale, he was unmarkable really. Most of his points were from around the ‘45’, right foot and left foot.

“It was just incredible what he done really. If it was a senior doing it, you’d be saying it was unbelievable,” said McBride.

Four Masters turned over 0-9 to 0-2 in arrears and faced an uphill battle.

“We got the wind with us in the second half; we started to get the breaks and we then got four in-a-row then at the start of the second half.

“And the crowd really lifted us. We had a fantastic support with us or they were very vocal anyway. It was like a 16th man for the second half.

“It all happened on the side we were on as well, and where the supporters were. It gave the boys a great lift, any time anything happened, you could hear the crowd getting behind us.

“Ah, it was one of them days; there’s few and far between in a lifetime.  I think we will all remember it, as a group we will.”

But despite playing well and getting it back to three points (0-10 to 0-7) with time against them Magherfelt pulled five clear again.

“Conor (McCahill) had a chance for a goal just before Tiarnan (McBride) was taken down for the penalty. It was nearly a carbon copy of one he missed (for Abbey VS) against Magherafelt last Tuesday (in Rafferty Cup final), only it was from the other side.

“The crowd thought it was in. It hit the ball behind the goal and went back and hit the back of the net. We thought it was in, so emotions were fairly flat at that stage.

“We thought we were for coming down the road empty handed,” said McBride.

One of Four Masters stars in the quarter-final win, Turlough Carr, on the ball

After making it to the final last year and suffering the heartbreak of a loss to another Derry side, Dungiven, this year’s crop are threatening to  set their own little bit of history.

Asked how many of last year’s side were available, McBride says: “Probably starting, six starting and we probably have about five that were subs and were involved (last year).  They knew the gig and they knew the drill. A lot of them came on as a sub or played some act or part in the four games up here last year.

“They had a wee bit of experience, but listen Magherafelt are a super team. We held in as best we could and we were just satisfied to get over the line really.”

And there was a little bit of hurt as both sets of players had met in schools games last year and again as recently as Tuesday of last week in the Rafferty Cup final when St Pius, Magherafelt had a one point win over Abbey VS. While the schools would have had players from other clubs, the vast majority of the players on view on Saturday evening would have played the previous Tuesday.

“There was a wee bit of hurt in the air. And they beat us at the same stage in the final in Celtic Park last year, they beat us by three. And we were trying to harness that ‘are we going to let them beat us three times in-a-row’. We were trying to gee them up that way,” said McBride.

The 2023 journey will continue next weekend when Four Masters return to Belfast to meet Castleblayney in the semi-final. That game is fixed for Sunday at 1 p.m.

“Castleblayney are next up for Four Masters. They are a really good side. We don’t know a whole lot about them. We were going to go up to watch them (in the Monaghan final). After the Fermanagh final, we had a choice to go to Cavan or Clones with the two finals on at the same time. We went to the Cavan game.

“We haven’t seen Castleblayney playing live, but we had them watched in the first game on Saturday. By all reports they are a good side,” said McBride, who added that there is nothing easy in this tournament.

“Up at that level, it is just the rub of the green or a decision  that can make the difference. It’s just top class teams. They are so well drilled. The games take on a life of their own. It’s underage and there is madness in what can happen. And that’s the way our game finished up on Saturday.”

McBride laughs when put to him did the game bring back any memories of his own minor days with Donegal in the early 1990s. “We do still think of an odd trip like that but it was just the euphoria of being involved (on Saturday).”

There was the added pressure of having his son, Tiarnan, on the field and McBride the younger certainly didn’t let the side down.

“You know yourself, the boys around the middle or further back don’t get many of the plaudits, but I suppose it fell well for him. He acquitted himself very well and also in the interview on TV afterwards.”

The former Termon man agrees that the St Paul’s tournament has a pretty high profile although it is relatively new to Four Masters.

“It has a profile and it is only in the last few years that we know about it. I know Ballyshannon won it in 1992. They beat Clanna Gael because we were talking to Diarmaid Marsden at the launch and he said he vividly remembered everything about that final. I thought it was incredible for him 30 years later. I think Marsden named the whole Ballyshannon team from start to finish, that’s how vivid it was in his memory,” said McBride, who would have played alongside many of that Aodh Ruadh team on the Donegal minor team of 1992.

He is reliving some of his youth this year in the company of the Four Masters minor team.

Young Tomás Carr consoles a Magherafelt player after the final whistle

MATCH DETAILS FROM  SATURDAY LAST

Four Masters scorers: Conor McCahill 0-5,2f; Tiarnan McBride 1-0; Kevin Muldoon 1-0,1pen;  Turlough Carr 0-2; Tomas Carr, Theo Colhoun 0-1 each. 

Magherafelt scorers: Conall Higgins 0-8,2f; E Spiers, J Beatte, M McKenna, B McCormick, C Spiers (f) 0-1 each. 

Four Masters: Lewis McCaughan; Alan McHugh, Daniel McGinty, Terence McGovern; Cian Gavigan, Callum McCrea, Aidan Quinn; Tiarnan McBride, Theo Colhoun; Tomas Carr, Kevin Muldoon, Patrick McGonigle; Conor McCahill, Oisin Doherty, Turlough Carr.

Subs: Eoghan  O’Neill for Gavigan (47); Lee McNamee for McHugh (59); Callum Dunnion for Quinn (60+3).

Magherafelt: K Campbell; T Cartin, Z Gavigan, C McCabe; E Spiers, R Small, C Kerr; J Beattie, Conall Higgins; M McKenna, Caolan Higgins, L Higgins; B McCormack, C Spiers, M Higgins..

Subs: K Maynes for B McCormack (38), T Beattie for C McCabe (54), M Lavery for C Kerr (54)

Referee: C McDonald (St Gall’s)

Conor McCahill in action for Donegal during the quarter-final win over Magherafelt