St Paul's 2-9

Abbey VS 0-7

St Pauls reach Loch an Iuír Semi-Final following victory against a strong Abbey VS of Donegal Town at the Tyrone Centre of Excellence in Garvaghey last Tuesday the 25th of January.

St Pauls started the game playing against a slight breeze but from the throw in got themselves on the front foot with fast moving football which put the Abbey boys on the back foot for the opening 10 minutes. During this period theAbbey back line stood firm and forced the St Pauls boys to kick a number of wides before Ronan Martin steadied the ship when on the 11 minutes registered the first score of the game from a 25-meter free.

The Abbey won the following kick out and attacked up the middle of the park driving a high ball into the full forwardline only for full back Gavin O Rourke to win the ball and not for the first time cleared his line of defence supported by Killian Murphy, Michael Kane and Sean Trainor. The following attack by the Abbey proved more successful with Josh Cullen winning a free which he converted to leave the sides level going into the last 2 minutes of the quarter where St Pauls Daithí O’Callaghan and Abbey Eoin Gallagher exchanged scores before Shea Loughran placed the ball in the back of the Abbey net on the stroke of the first water break to leave score line 1-02 to 0-02 in favour to the Armagh boys.

Shortly after the restart St Pauls were dealt a double blow with the injured Darragh O’Hagan and Daithí O'Callaghan being replaced by Oran Carnegie and Scott Harris. During this period the Abbey boys raised the tempo across the park and made life difficult for the St Pauls boys with Josh Cullen pointing a free for the Abbey before the St Pauls lads converted a well worked team score with the ball moving patiently through the hands of Calvin Mooney, Shea Loughran, Keane McArdle & Julian Carr before Oran Carneige drove the ball across the bar. The Abbey finished the half strong with Eoin Gallagher almost breaking the St Paul's line. He won a free which Jack Glappa pointed. Witha minute into added time Abbeys midfielder Patrick Craig fired over with his left boot to leave just a point between the sides at half time on a score line of St Paul's 1-3, Abbey VS 0-5.

On the resumption of the 2nd half, Daithí O Callaghan was reintroduced and it was in this period that St Paul's played some of their best football extending the lead with Shea Loughran hitting two and Keane McArdle added a third to put five points between the sides. Due credit to the Abbeylads they continued to fight back and had the ball in the St Paul's net when Eoin Gallagher connected with a Cullen free, but the referee ruled it out for Gallagher being in the square before the ball. Then just before the final water break, Abbeys Eoin Gallagher cut the gap to four from a free kick to ensure the game stayed on a knife edge going into the final quarter.

At the start of the final quarter both teams exchanged opportunities to create scores but it was the Abbey lads that would register the first score of the quarter and which turned out to be their only score in this period which came from a free converted by Josh Cullen on the 51 minutes.

From there on, St Paul's pulled away with the half back line of Tomas Fox, Connor Dunne and Sean Trainor moving the ball through Shane McParland, Shea Loughran to create the Calvin Mooney pointed opportunity. The St Pauls men continued to apply pressure by moving the ball wide with Julian Carr and Scott Harris linking up to push the ball into the danger zone where St Pauls (ENTER NAME) was fouled in the small square giving the referee no choice but to award the St Paul lads a penalty in the 59th minute which Shea Loughran placed with accuracy in the bottom corner of the net giving Abbey goalkeeper Lewis McCaughan no chance. St Pauls continued to apply the pressure and a minute into injury time Shea Loughran scored a point which would be the final play of the afternoon.

ST PAUL'S, BESSBROOK: Aodhan Lamph; Killian Murphy, Gavin O'Rourke, Michael Kane; Sean Trainor, Conor Dunne, Tomas Fox; Daithí O'Callaghan (0-1), Shane McParland; Calvin Mooney (0-1), Shea Loughran (2-4,1-0 pen), Ronan Martin (0-1f); Keane McArdle (0-1), DarraghO'Hagan, Julian Carr. Sub: Scott Harris for Darragh O’Hagan (injured 17min), Oran McCarneige (0-1) for DaithíO'Callaghan (injured 19min), Daithí O'Callaghan for Scott Harris (Half time), Scott Harris for Ronan Martin (35 min), Jarlath O Neill for Julian Carr (55min)

ABBEY VS, DONEGAL: Lewis McCaughan; Eoin Kennedy, Aidan Quinn, Dylan McGrory; Patrick McGonagle, Kian Gavigan, Eoin O'Neill; Patrick Craig (0-1), Tomás Carr; Jamie Ward, Eoin Gallagher (0-2,2f), Jack Bennett; Jack Glappa (0-1f), Josh Cullen (0-2,2f), Gettin Mosby. Sub: Ethan McCrea for Kennedy ht. Rest of panel: Rory Doherty, Patrick Gallagher, John Farren, Dylan Doherty, Lewis McCalmont, Alex McMullin, Jack McGroarty.

REFEREE: Martin Conroy (Tyrone)