Abbey best in classic clash

Abbey 2-15 St Patrick's 2-13: It was like old-style Meath football meets present-day Ulster dominance. Yesterday's clash of two colossuses served up a magical feast of football that was simply non-stop for the 80-odd minutes referee Michael Meade was forced to let them go at it.

One fact remains this morning: Abbey CBS have the Hogan Cup in Newry for the first time in their history. In the end, someone had to blink. St Patrick's, managed by Colm O'Rourke, eventually faded in the second half of extra-time to concede four points without reply. Utterly stubborn up to that point, they were dead on their feet.

Players like Brian Sheridan, who produced a performance littered with genius, Seán Keating, captain Shane O'Rourke - son of Colm - and even goalkeeper Patrick O'Rourke, time and again kept their team in control with some hugely important contributions. They seemed destined to win.

But if any one man stood slightly higher than the others it was Armagh minor Kevin Dyas. He sacrificed his position at centre back early in the first half to force Abbey CBS back into this contest. Simply put, he was immense in scoring two crucial goals, and a point in the first part of extra-time, which kept his school in touch.

After the initial feeling-out first quarter, when O'Rourke threatened to win the game on his own, St Patrick's had pulled away with a comfortable 0-7 to 0-2 lead. But for a great save from Abbey goalkeeper Cathal Murdock, O'Rourke would have added a goal to this margin.

Dyas then perked up by grabbing the opening goal thanks to a clever lay-off from midfielder Cathal Magee.

This was eclipsed by the Navan colleges' full forward Keating who contributed two more points to leave a four-point gap at the break, 0-9 to 1-2.

Then came that familiar Ulster resistance. As full back and captain Kevin McKernan said in a joyous acceptance speech, you don't win the MacRory Cup only to lie down when contesting a Hogan Cup final.

Four points on the bounce turned the game the northerners' way. Three of these came off the boot of Ruairí Cunningham, who had just come off the bench. What he was doing there for the previous half hour remains a mystery.

Keating finally clipped a score in an attempt to tie up the contest for Navan but Dyas merely barged forward once more before delivering a hand-pass to Cunningham who pointed.

Sheridan is a brother of current Meath forward Joe and they are certainly cut from the same cloth. Almost jealous that his moment in the spotlight was being denied, he began to control proceedings. O'Rourke started winning ball again around the middle too.

Mark McCabe then punched to the net to swing the pendulum back the way of St Patrick's.

Injury-time was soon arriving with Abbey trailing by three points. Guess who stepped up? After Niall Devlin appeared to take too much out of the ball when faced by a wall of Meath men, he turned to feed Dyas who rifled the ball into the top corner of the net.

Extra-time was similar to what had gone before with O'Rourke's team pulling clear thanks to a Keating goal after an excellent build-up by O'Rourke and Steven Moran. Back out to three points.

Dyas landed a point to reduce the deficit to two and into the last round we went with players dropping from cramp all over the field. Abbey CBS had that little more in the tank as Gerard McGarvey and Devlin levelled the intoxicating match one more time.

It ended with full forward Seán Murdock flashing two scores over with the outside of his boot. A little bit of style to end a game packed with industry. Football for the soul.

ABBEY CBS, NEWRY: C Murdock; M Digney, K McKiernan (capt), R Grant; D Rowland, K Dyas (2-1), C Coffey; C Murney, C Magee; R Gilmore (0-2), S Grant, D Clarke; N Devlin (0-2), S Murdock (0-3, one free), G McGarvey (0-2). Subs: R Cunningham (0-4) for D Clarke (half-time), D Clarke for D Rowland (39 mins), C McGovern (0-1) for G McGarvey (48 mins), D Rowland for S Grant (55 mins), G McGarvey for C McGovern (69 mins).

ST PATRICK'S, NAVAN: P O'Rourke; S Donaty, D Maguire, K Lynch; D Donegan, S Carr, M McKeever; S O'Rourke (capt, 0-3, frees), C Clarke; R Geraghty, M McCabe (1-0), G Gorman (0-1); D Mallon, S Keating (1-4), B Sheridan (0-3, one side line). Subs: S Moran (0-2) for R Geraghty (35 mins), K Reilly for D Mallon (42 mins), R McCabe for C Clarke (60 mins), F O'Reilly for M McCabe (70 mins).

Referee: M Meade (Limerick).