Intermediate B final win a ‘tonic’ for St Mary’s, Convoy - McDermott

The comeback was scarcely believable, but Conor McDermott says Saturday’s Intermediate B final win was a ‘tonic’ for the St Mary’s, Convoy club.

St Mary’s came from 2-5 to 0-4 behind to defeat Naomh Columba 3-7 to 2-5 at O’Donnell Park.

Paul O’Leary, Jason McDaid and Matthew Coyle scored the second-half goals to swing the pendulum.

The win came a week after the St Mary’s, Convoy seniors were beaten by Naomh Brid in the Intermediate Championship’s relegation play-off.

“It’s not just today, it’s a tonic for the whole club,” winning manager McDermott said after Saturday’s victory.

St Mary’s, Convoy hit back from the brink to down Naomh Columba in Intermediate B final

Naomh Columba failed to score in the second half as St Mary’s, Convoy came from seven points behind to win the Intermediate B Championship title

“We were hurting from last week. We’re still staring down to junior football. We don’t see ourselves as junior, but the results do.”

It wasn’t looking good for St Mary’s with Sean Hardy and Ronan Gillespie netting as Naomh Columba took what seemed like a real grip.

McDermott said: “It was a game of two halves.

“We prided ourselves on all the performances that we put together all year and I was gutted that we left it all our there. It was heartbreaking to come in like that at half-time.

“There were no tactical changes, it was just: ‘Is there a performance there like we’ve seen all year?’ They got the momentum going for themselves.”

Within 11 minutes of the start of the second half, St Mary’s were level and they finished strong to bag the silverware.

McDermott said:  “It was incredible in many respects. We were given huge tests by Termon, Red Hughs as well and the Glen game where we conceded a lot of goals.

“I was confident that, when we got our act together, that we could hold them out.”