St Columba's bow out of Markey Cup after strong second-half from Holy Cross

Holy Cross Strabane came from a point down at half time in MacCumhaill Park on Tuesday afternoon to record a superb victory over St Columba’s and book their place in the Markey Cup final.

Holy Cross 1-11 St Columba's 1-8

Despite the home team dominating large portions of the match, the teams were level pegging at seven-points apiece with 15 minutes left on the clock.

Then the tide suddenly turned in favour of Holy Cross with the visitors registering 1-5 to St Columba’s 1-1 coming down the final straight in what was a chaotic ending in the Twin Towns.

Holy Cross opened the game’s scoring with a free from Conor Langan, but Columba’s quickly responded with a point from Cathair Browne.

Despite the home side’s early fouling inside their own 45, the sides remained level with St Columba’s attempt at playing high balls on top of the Strabane ‘keeper and full-back line resulting in nothing.

Holy Cross would go without a score until Oisín Kelly would land a fine point off his right on the 21st minute, while before that, St Columba’s found their grove with points apiece from Noah Reid and Daithí McMahon, and they would be upset they didn’t score more during that time.

With nothing between the sides, Holy Cross eventually found the lead with two frees on the bounce converted by Corin McConnell and Langan.

But Columba’s would end the half on a high when McMahon would win a mark from a long ball kicked to him from captain Jack Long, which was followed by Daire Quigley darting up from corner-back, skipping past three Holy Cross players to fire over off his right in what was the score of the match as the half came to a close.

Corner–back Aidan Hegarty and St Columba’s Browne would trade points in the opening minute to restart the game, but by the 46th minute Holy Cross had found their purple patch supplying severe pressure to the Donegal school’s defence and winning majority of St Columba’s kickouts.

Full-forward Ronan McLaughlin had a great chance at goal for Holy Cross but a double block down from Adam McCullagh left the players scrambling for the ball on the ground which resulted in Langan kicking it over the bar.

Holes in the St Columba’s defence began to appear in their failing to win their own kickouts and it showed when unmarked McConnell could’ve shot for goal but opted for a point to keep the scoreboard ticking.

However, the away side proved too strong on the attack in the final third and a goal from an unmarked Langan proved that when he split the Donegal side’s defence to ease the ball past Sam McGlinchey to make it 1-10 to 0-8.

St Columba’s tried to respond immediately with a goal of their own, but Long’s palmed effort was stopped on the line by the Holy Cross goalkeeper.

Their goal would come on the 60th minute when Long sent a high ball inside the box in an attempt to salvage a victory. The ball fell for Browne who attempted to nail it past Ronan Ward in nets, but the ‘keeper did enough to knock the ball away only for it to fall into the hands of Josh Reid who fired it home.

With three points in the match and time ticking on, Holy Cross resorted to cynical fouling outside their defensive area in an attempt to slow down their opposition’s attack.

St Columba’s would finish the match with 14 men, when on the 64th minute Rúairí Callaghan was sent off following an off the ball incident, but it made no difference as moments later Holy Cross were celebrating a marvellous second-half performance that sees them advance to the final.

Scorers – Holy Cross: Conor Langan 1-5 (4fs), Corin McConnell 0-3 (1f), Aidan Hegarty, Oisín Kelly and Ronan McLaughlin 0-1 each. St Columba’s: Daithí McMahon 0-4 (2 fs, 1M), Rúairí Callaghan 1-0, Cathair Browne 0-2, Noah Reid and Daire Quigley 0-1 each.

Holy Cross: Ronan Ward; Aidan Hegarty, Conor Gallagher, Deane Bradley; Conall Flanagan, Corin McConnell, Conor Langan; Dara Dooher, Cealef McMenamin; Ross Tourish, Ben Arnold, Oran White; Oisín Kelly, Ronan McLaughlin, Jon Pol McMenamin. Subs: Josh Gallagher for White (25); Dylan Devlin for Kelly (51).

St Columba’s: Sam McGlinchey; Kyle Ruttledge, Conor Murphy, Daire Quigley; Cathair Browne, Dan Donnelly, Fionn McGinty; Jack Long, Rúairí Callaghan; Josh Reid, Adam McCullagh, Daithí McMahon; Liam Carlin, Noah Reid, Diarmuid O’Donnell. Subs: Callum Long for Murphy (39); Cormac Roarty for Quigley (48); Jamie Gavigan for Carlin, Cathal Cannon for O’Donnell (both 55)

Ref: Paul Gallagher