Corn Uan Uladh Ulster Colleges’ Senior A Camogie final
St Mary’s, Magherafelt 0-11 St Patrick’s Maghera 1-5
THREE super points in a six minute spell midway through the second half in Lavey on Saturday were key to St Mary’s, Magherafelt retaining Corn Uan Uladh in the Ulster Colleges’ Senior Camogie final.
Two of those were scored by 15 year-old Clare Mulholland to add to two other glorious longer range points during the first half.
Her second half points, along with one from Eimhear McGuigan, turned the game in St Mary’s favour and they were able to then contain St Patrick’s, Maghera to the final whistle.
Winning coach Raymond Kennedy acknowledged the importance of the youngster’s points.
“We were missing our regular full-forward Jackie Kennedy through injury and brought Clare in. I don’t believe that Jackie could have done better. Clare was marking one of their best players and four points was more than we could have hoped for.”
“It was a derby final played on a very cold day and was never going to be an easy outing for us. But the girls worked well, especially after conceding the goal near half time and then during the last ten minutes when Maghera really put it up to our defence.”
“It has been a good tight competition this year and we have had hard matches right along. Looking back now it is excellent preparation for the All-Ireland semi-final in February.”
St Patrick’s shot quite a number of wides particularly during the second half. But the winners’ defence was very tight and only Aoife Shaw and Therese Mellon got any change out of them over the hour.
Roisin Cassidy and Rebecca Bradley gained a lot of possession for Magherafelt at the back with Roisin left free after Maghera opted to play a sweeper.
That seemed to work for them however and points from Ellen Kelly and Aoife Shaw (2) saw Maghera go into an early three points’ lead after ten minutes.
St Mary’s didn’t get off the mark until the 15th minute with a free from Eimhear McGuigan who added another two minutes later.
Points from Clare Mulholland and Niamh McKee edged them ahead before they conceded a goal in the 25th minute.
Una McKeown initially saved brilliantly, but her clearance was returned in high and Deirbhle McNicholl followed it to poke McKeown’s second stop over the line.
St Mary’s needed a response before the break and got it – a super score from 50 metres from Clare Mulholland.
Susan McElwee pointed on the re-start to level the game, and then St Mary’s conceded a penalty a couple of minutes later by holding up sub Niamh Gallagher in her first involvement in the game.
Aoife Shaw’s effort however was blocked down, although she did pick up the half-clearance and point. That however was her team’s last score until she pointed a free two minutes from the end.
In between were a number of wides for Maghera and five points for Magherafelt – two each for Mulholland and McGuigan and the last, in the 54th minute, from Niamh McKee to open the gap to four points.
Shaw’s late free closed it to a goal, but Maghera never really looked like breaking the winners’ defence for an equaliser at the death.
St Mary’s : U McKeown, M Kearns, M Diamond, R Cassidy, B McAllister, R Bradley, A Craig, U McCoy, F Burke, N McKee 0-2, C McAuley, S McElwee 0-1, E McGuigan 0-4, 0-3 frees, C Mulholland 0-4, K McLeod.
Subs : S McCusker, K Wilson, J Donnelly, N Kelly, R McAllister, O McGuigan, M Lagan, M McGirr, E O’Kane, B Kilpatrick, R Doyle, A McAuley
St Patrick’s : E Burns, E Corrigan, C Ni Cheallaigh, E McGrath, E McGuigan, S Mellon, O McNeill, B Ni Chaiside, C McGroggan, B Walsh, A Gorman, T Mellon, D McNicholl 1-0, E Kelly 0-1, A Shaw 0-4, 0-2 frees.
Subs : N Gallagher for C McGroggan (32), C Mulholland for E McGrath (56).
Referee : Colm Cunning (Antrim)
