THE first half of this Danske Bank Mageean Cup semi-final was brilliant to watch if there were any neutrals around.
If you were a supporter of either St Patrick’s or St Louis’, it was nail-biting, edge-of-the-seat drama played at a blistering pace with top class scoring at each end.
That half finished 1-11 to 1-10 in favour of the Ballymena side.
For the Red High management of Darren Swail, Sean Paul Gibson and Danny Toner, the entertainment factor had to be sacrificed to get the result they needed.
Bringing Oisin Coulter back as extra cover in defence curtailed the damage that Ballymena’s two Loughgiel inside forwards had done in the opening half, but it also meant that the Red High’s attack would struggle to retain ball to keep the scoreboard running.
Jack McCloskey had scored 1-4 in the first half and Rónán McCollam 0-3. McCollam fired over another point in the 57th minute and pointed a free at the very end while trying to
it in on the Downpatrick area to poach a late goal.
McCloskey didn’t score in the second half and being out of general play resulted in his normally reliable free-taking also taking a hit.
At the other end the outnumbered Downpatrick forwards had to survive on scraps as well but they could always rely on their free-takers.
Goalkeeper Pearse Smyth landed two points from inside his own half, while Tom McGrattan converted three frees and landed a point from play as well.
McGrattan was the star of the game and he capped a brilliant individual performance with two late plays that effectively took his team into the final.
With the game in the balance at 1-16 each in the 63rd minute, McGrattan jinked his way along the sideline under the stand to win himself a free.
It was an acute angle, but the Portaferry clubman arrowed the sliotar between the uprights.
Then less than a minute later he played a beautiful cross-field pass into the path of mid-
fielder Finn Turpin, who stepped inside the defender and hit the roof of the net from 10 metres out.
St Patrick’s were through to their first ever Danske Bank Mageean Cup final where they will play St Patrick’s Maghera at the Dub Arena on Friday week, December 17.
But back again to that breath-taking first half.
After five minutes, the teams had each scored three points. By the tenth minute, Jack McCloskey had cut through the Red High cover and shot to the net off the base of the right hand post.
Within three minutes Downpatrick were a point up. McGrattan went around the left side of the Ballymena defence at full pace to rifle to the roof of the net for one of the best goals that you will see at any level.
Aodhan McGarry responded by pointing from a side-line and the water-break broke the action at 1-5 each.
McGarry started the second quarter scoring with a fine point but a run of three successive scores from Finn Turpin, McGrattan and Oisin Coulter edged the Red High ahead again.
However, three frees from Jack McCloskey and a point from Ronan McCollam put Ballymena in the lead by 1-11 to 1-10 at half-time.
By the second water break Downpatrick were 1-15 to 1-14 ahead, mainly through frees and St Louis’ were now looking for scores from distance.
The next 11 minutes went scoreless. In hindsight Ballymena snatched at a couple of scoring chances that might have put pressure on the eventual winners who pumped a lot of ball in high on the north Antrim defence with no return.
Eventually sub Tom McFerran brought the teams level and McCollam from the left wing gave St Louis’ the lead. The gauntlet had been thrown down for the Red High.
Oisin Coulter landed a much-needed Downpatrick point in reply and they held firm until Tom McGrattan delivered the match-winning scores.
It is scant consolation for Ballymena that they played their part in a fine display of schools’ hurling, but a number of players stood out including Daire McMullan, Connor Dickson and Dara Martin in defence and McCollam and McCloskey in attack until tempered by Downpatrick’s packed back line.
Defence was ultimately the winning of the game, but they would not have got across the line without Turpin, Oisin Coulter and especially the mercurial Tom McGrattan.
As a hurling disciple of the great Bro Charles in the 1970s, I was a proud man leaving the Dub on Friday evening.
For the generations of hurlers who climbed to the top of the hill on Saul Street each morning over the past 60 or 70 years, winning a Mageean was just not on the radar.
This team is only 60 minutes from achieving what for us was the impossible.
St Patrick’s: P Smyth 0-2 frees, J Ruddy, R O’Neill, D Coulter, S Mageean, D Mallon, C Lenaghan, T Connolly 0-1, F Turpin 1-2, M Dorrian 0-1, A Connolly, T McGrattan 1-9 (5f), O Coulter 0-2, R McGrath, S McCarthy.
Subs: F MacManus for A Connolly (21), LMcCabe for S McCarthy (43), F Casey for R McGrath (58).