As the saying goes two out of three ain’t bad. Both Scotstown and Rockcorry reached the Senior and Junior AIB Ulster Club Finals respectively while Doohamlet were beaten by Down champions Loughinisland in their semi final.
First up in the Athletic Grounds were Rockcorry who took on Down Junior Champions Glassdrumman. Despite controlling a lot of the 1st half Rockcorry only went in 0-3 to 0-5 ahead after playing with a strong breeze and missing a number of goal chances. The 2nd half commenced with Rockcorry scoring 2 points before Glassdrumman getting one back. Then the game turned when the Down men were reduced to 14 men after full back Frank O’ Neill received his marching orders. Rockcorry tapped over 3 points in quick succession to leave the scoreline 0-10 to 0-4 with a quarter of an hour to go. Glassdrumman got a point back with a pointed free from Cormac Murphy. With a little over 5 minutes to go Keith Daly received a black card for pulling down in the big square. However Jamie Smith came to the rescue not for the first time and saved the resulting penalty from Cormac Murphy. Both sides then exchanged points to leave the full time score Rockcorry 0-11 Glasdrumman 0 – 6 Rockcorry will now play in an Ulster Final for the first time against Derry Champions Faughanvale in a fortnight,
Scorers: Fergal Mc Geough 0-2 (1f) Mark Mc Guirk 0-2 Noel Carroll 0-2 Mark Daly 0-2 Stephen Mc Guirk 0-1 Mark Thornton 0-1 Paul Mc Keown 0-1
In Enniskillen in the Senior Club Semi final Scotstown overcome the Tyrone Champions Trillick by 2 points. Please read below report by Francis Mooney taken from the RTE Sports Website
Scotstown (Monaghan) 2-09 2-07 Trillick (Tyrone)
Scotstown will face Crossmaglen in the Ulster Club SFC final following their 2-9 to 2-7 win over Trillick at Brewster Park.The Monaghan men edged out the Tyrone champions in a dogged but entertaining contest played out in front of a crowd of almost 4,000 at the Enniskillen venue.
The Farney men eased two points ahead with scores from Beggan, who converted a 45-metre free, and a Conor McCarthy point.Trillick struck for a goal in the 15th minute when Mattie Donnelly’s defence-splitting pass sent wing-back Daniel McDonnell in for a tidy finish, but that was cancelled out three minutes later when Darren Hughes punched home at the far post from his brother Kieran’s dropping delivery.The Tyrone men responded in positive fashion, midfielder Eoin Gormley popping over a couple of scores, but in stoppage time, Shane Carey curled over a free to send Scotstown in with a 1-5 to 1-4 lead.
Scotstown forged further ahead in the opening stages of the second half with a 1-1 salvo from Darren Hughes.He displayed alertness to collect the rebound from McCarthy’s effort which came off a post and bury his shot past Joe Maguire.But once again the Reds responded in emphatic fashion, Niall Gormley darting through a gap in the cover to fire a low shot to the corner of the net less than a minute later.And in the space of a few seconds, a five-point deficit had been trimmed back to one by Daire Gallagher.Each side enjoyed their spells of supremacy, with Scotstown easing three ahead through Orin Heaphy, before Richie Donnelly and Niall Gormley hit the target.With ten minutes to play, just a point separated the sides, but Trillick failed to score in the closing 20 minutes, while their opponents managed just one point, that long-range free from Beggan in stoppage time.
Scotstown: R Beggan (0-2, 2f), D McArdle, E Caulfield, B McGinnity, M Duffy, K Hughes, F McPhillips, F Caulfield, J Turley, O Heaphy (0-2), D Morgan, C McCarthy (0-1), S Carey (0-2, 2f), D Hughes (2-2), R McKenna.
Subs: B Boylan for McGinnity, D McCague for McKenna, D McCrudden for Heaphey
Trillick: J Maguire, S O’Donnell, R Kelly, D Kelly, N Donnelly (0-01), R Brennan, D McDonnell (1-00), R Donnelly (0-01), E Gormley (0-02), M Donnelly, P O’Kane, S Kelly, N Gormley (1-1), L Brennan (0-1, f), D Gallagher (0-1).
Subs: S Gormley for S Kelly, R Gray for Gallagher
Referee: C Branagan (Down).
Doohamlet were the other Monaghan Club in action in the IFC where they took on Down Team Loughinisland in the Athletic Grounds. In a close first half despite playing with the wind Doohamlet went in 1-3 to 0-4 behind at half time with Conor Megoran scoring the all important goal against the run of play in the 15 minute while 5 minutes previously Jamie Walshe scored a point which so easily could have been a point. Doohamlet made a good start to the 2nd half with two Barry Mc Ginn points to draw level but that was as good as it got. The Down side then scored an unanswered 2-1 before another Mc Ginn point. Nothing went right for the Monaghan men in the 2nd half. Loughinisland got another goal before Barry Mc Ginn grabbed a consolation goal in injury time to leave the full time scoreline Doohamlet 1-7 Loughinisland 4-7
Scorers Barry Mc Ginn 1-6 (1-4f) Jamie Walshe 0-1
By Majella Boyd Mon 16th Nov
