Abbey Vocational School power past Abbey CBS in dominant MacRory cup display

With a strong wind in their favour, the Abbey Vocational School used that to their advantage in the second half to romp home a convincing win against Abbey CBS, Newry in the third round of the MacRory Cup on a miserable day in Garvaghey on Thursday. 

Two first-half goals from Tiarnan McBride and Conor McCahill kept the Donegal Town side on level terms with the school from Newry in the first 30 minutes, despite the AVS not playing to their best, but were playing into an extreme breeze. 

But that all changed after the break when the AVS blew Abbey CBS out of the water with McBride landing his second goal on the 40th minute to put the Donegal men into the lead, one they never let go of, as they marched out of the Tyrone Centre of Excellence seven-point winners on the day.  

It looked dodgy for a while however, particularly in the first half as Abbey CBS took the lead by capitalising on turnovers in the AVS defence and winning primary possession from the kickouts in midfield. 

Aron Maginess used the breeze to his advantage. He nailed the ball over the bar for his team’s first score, which was immediately followed by the ever-present Daniel McKernan who could’ve landed an early goal when he was left one-on-one with Lewis McCaughan when the AVS lost possession in their own defence. But McKernan’s shot was too high as he was forced to settle for a point. 

The stiff breeze made it difficult for the AVS to find any sort of rhythm on the attack and it took them 13 minutes to get their first score when their star forward Tomas Carr kicked over a free to narrow the gap back to one point. 

But Abbey CBS were quick to respond with their forward line showing levels of true skill and accuracy on the ball as Conall McGeough raced down the left wing, before turning in on his right and firing over from a tight angle. 

Then came the first goal of the game. As the AVS prepared for the Newry school to take a 30-metre free, McGeough opted to instead play it short to Maginess who was left unmarked as he drove the ball through a wall of red jerseys but it still managed to find the back of the net with the Abbey caught sleeping. 

But Kevin Muldoon was on hand to steady the ship when Tomas Carr fed him through after winning possession from a kickout, allowing the corner-forward to race down the field and fire over for his team’s second point, before getting his side’s third minutes later. 

With 10 minutes left in the half, the AVS decided to turn the screw by raising two green flags in the space of two minutes. 

The first goal occurred when Tomas Carr drove his way through the Abbey CBS defence to lay the ball off to McBride who smashed the ball home into the net. But it didn’t stop there, as a minute later Conor McCahill won a long ball kicked inside to him, with the corner-forward losing his handling only to play the ball along the ground and poke it into the corner of the net. 

But Abbey CBS would level the match up with two more attacks, firstly when the Doen side attempted to test the AVS in the air with a long ball on top of the ‘keeper’s box, resulting in Adam McCann Gibbs punching the ball over the bar, while McGeough hit one final free to leave the game level at 1-6 to 2-3 at the half-time break. 

The second half would not be as even with the AVS dominating the second half, containing Abbey CBS to only two points inside 30 minutes. 

Turlough Carr started the score fest in the opening minute when he kicked over from distance with the breeze in his favour while Oisin Doherty rose to the occasion on both occasions during the next two phases of play when he kicked his first point of the day over from a placed ball, while the second was shot over from distance. 

With the AVS leading by three at this point, they looked to be in a comfortable position until McBride found the net for the second time on the 40th minute when Patrick McGonagle drove a super ball into McBride standing in the full-forward position. He shoved his man out of the way, turned, and fired the ball into the net to put his side ahead by six points. 

McKernan tried to salvage a performance by pulling one back with a ‘45’ kicked over, but the partnership of Muldoon and Tomas Carr was just far too strong on the day with both men assisting each other as they traded points. 

Theo Colhoun kicked the final score for his side when Muldoon floated a superb crossfield ball to the unmarked midfielder who put the icing on the cake as the Donegal Town school ran out 3-9 to 1-8 winners on the day. 

Abbey VS have now topped their group and will play the winners of the Group B bottom of the table clash  between St Joseph’s Donaghmore and Cathair Dhoire which takes place in Celtic Park next Wednesday. Abbey VS will have home venue for that next game which is set for the week of 10-14 December. 

Abbey Vocational School scorers: Tiarnan McBride 2-0; Kevin Muldoon 0-3; Conor McCahill 1-0; Tomas Carr 0-2, 1f; Oisin Doherty 0-2, 1f; Theo Colhoun and Turlough Carr 0-1 each.

Abbey CBS scorers: Aron Maginess 1-2; Conall McGeough 0-3, 1f; Daniel McKernan 0-2, 1 '45'; Adam McCann Gibbs 0-1.

Abbey Vocational School: Lewis McCaughan: Eoghan O’Neill, Aidan Quinn, Daniel McGinty; Cian Gavigan, Patrick McGonagle, Oisin Brogan; Tiarnan McBride, Theo Colhoun; Tomas Carr, Turlough Carr, Darragh Griffin; Conor McCahill, Oisin Doherty, Kevin Muldoon. Subs: Thomas Lenehan and Christian Ward for Griffin and Brogan (both 55), Kevin Rose for Gavigan (60). 

Abbey CBS: James McBennett; Cathal Burns, Dara Havern, Conor Laverty; Fergus Toale, Corey Loughran, Luke McKeown; Adam McCann Gibbs, Daniel McKernan; Paul McGovern, Aron Maginess, Christopher Connolly; Daniel Carr, Conall McGeough, James O’Mahoney.