Sports digest

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

North win battle of the Irish schools

SOCCER: Northern Ireland's first Under-18 Centenary Shield home victory over the Irish Schools since 1995 last night at the Oval ended the Republic's chances of retaining their trophy.

The Republic needed to avoid defeat, having drawn against Wales a fortnight ago, but instead Northern Ireland extended their lead at the top with a 2-0 win, courtesy of goals from Martin Murray (71 minutes) and Cathal Friel (90).

NORTHERN IRELAND: Glendinning, Robinson, Bonner, Carson, Hughes, McGuigan, Murray, Quinn, Robinson, Rosato, Winchester. Subs: Lowry for Rosato (h/t), McAleer for Robinson (68 mins), Friel for Carson (83), Harkin for Murray (89 mins).

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Murray (Pobailscoil Iosolde); Barker (Fingal CC), Cooney (Templeogue CC), McLaughlin (Carndonagh), Matthews (Clonkeen Col), Merritt (Loreto CS, Milford), Douglas (St Brendan’s Col, Bray), Chambers (St Fintan’s), Kavanagh (Oatlands Col), C McLoughlin (Scoil Mhuire, Buncrana); Lyons (Pres, Bray). Subs: Timlin (Buncrana) for McLoughlin (ht), Lane (Pres, Athenry) for Kavanagh (61), Adam Piggott (Tralee) for Cooney (73), Tony McNamee (Loreto, Milford) for Merritt (83)

Ferguson unsure when Ferdinand will be fit again

SOCCER: Manchester United are still not sure whether centre back Rio Ferdinand will be able to play again this season, manager Alex Ferguson said yesterday.

“My concern is getting Rio back for some part of this season and hopefully we can do that,” Ferguson told a news conference.

England captain Ferdinand suffered a calf injury in the warm-up before United’s 2-1 league defeat by Wolverhampton Wanderers on February 5th.

Central defender Nemanja Vidic will also miss Saturday’s Premier League game against Bolton Wanderers along with John O’Shea and Rafael da Silva, who both suffered hamstring injuries during Tuesday’s Champions League win over Olympique Marseille.

“We’re having a bad spell,” Ferguson said. “Only a few weeks ago we had every defender fit and looking great.” Defender Jonny Evans has returned to training but Ferguson is again likely to play Chris Smalling and Wes Brown in central defence against Bolton.

Wenger banned for one game

SOCCER:Arsene Wenger and Samir Nasri have both been banned for one match by Uefa for remarks made to the referee after Arsenal's Champions League last 16 defeat by Barcelona.

Tottenham first team coach Joe Jordan has also been handed a one-match suspension for incidents that took place at Spurs’ last 16 first leg match at AC Milan. Jordan clashed with Gennaro Gattuso, who was later given a four-match ban for head-butting him.

McBrearty seals victory for Donegal

GAELIC GAMES: Full forward Patrick McBrearty was the hero for Donegal as he won and then blasted home a penalty to secure their sixth All-Ireland Vocational schools senior football title with a 1-11 to 0-10 win over Cork at Pearse Stadium in Galway yesterday.

McBrearty’s goal at the end of the third quarter proved to be the decisive score in this replay.

Donegal minor McBrearty was hauled down when they led by 0-9 to 0-8 after 44 minutes and he stepped up to fire the penalty to the net.

DONEGAL: C McGlynn; J Campbell, A Blair, A McCloskey; M Reilly, P Doherty, N Breslin; D White (0-1), L Barrett (0-1); S McGarvey (0-3), J O’Malley (0-2), R McHugh; B McNeilis (0-1), P McBrearty (1-1, 1-0 pen), S Boyle (0-2). Subs: S Ellis for Breslin (38).

CORK: S Masters; J Ryan, E Delaney, N McCarthy; L O’Neill, D O’Connell, TJ Brosnan; G Farrell (0-1, free), M Howard; M Sugrue, M Vaughan (0-2), D Harrington (0-2); S Ryan, J O’Donoghue (0-4), J Corkery (0-2). Subs: G Barry for O’Neill (42 mins), C Flanagan for Harrington (50 mins), A Goold for J Ryan (58 mins).

Mooney the hero for St Colman's St Colman’s, Newry 2-9 St Patrick’s, Dungannon 2-8

GAELIC GAMES:The kings of MacRory Cup football extended their lead at the top of the roll of honour with a 19th title in the St Patrick's Day showpiece.

Holders St Colman’s, Newry just shaded a thrilling decider against a St Patrick’s side stacked with seven members of last year’s All-Ireland minor-winning Tyrone side.

But the Co Down school went into this title shoot-out with eight of the side that won the MacRory and Hogan Cup titles in 2010.

One of those, Caolan Mooney, hit two marvellous goals to secure back -to-back triumphs for the boys from Violet Hill. But twice Dungannon responded with quality goals of their own in a cracking encounter.

Dungannon led early on with scores from Liam Girvan, Dwayne Quinn and Kiefer Morgan. But Mooney set the game alight with an unstoppable finish to the roof of the net from Jerome Johnston’s pass in the 15th minute.

Four minutes later, Quinn sent Harry Óg Conlan in for a St Patrick’s goal, but with Ryan Johnston a towering figure in midfield, Colman’s finished the first half with three points, two from Jerome Johnston, the other from Mooney, to send them in level at the break on 1-4 each. Dungannon eased two clear, but Mooney struck again for his second goal following a slick 43rd minute move.

Jack Haughey and Patrick Morgan tagged on points to push them four clear, but Academy hit back with a goal by substitute Aidan McGarrity.

ST COLMAN’S NEWRY: M McNeice; M O’Hare, N Donnelly, R Lively; D Brannigan, E Magee, K Haughey; R Johnston, C Gough; J Haughey (0-1), P Casey, C Mooney (2-2); S McArdle (0-1), J Johnston (0-4, two frees), T McGreevy. Sub: P Morgan (0-1) for O’Hare.

ST PATRICK’S DUNGANNON: M McReynolds; J Carberry, S Molloy, M McAleer; E Deeney, S McGarrity, S Quinn (0-1), C McFall, P Barker, D Quinn (0-1), K Morgan (0-1), H Óg Conlan (1-0), S Lavery, R Devlin (0-1), L Girvan (0-4, one free). Subs: A McGarrity (1-0) for Barker, C Corrigan for McAleer, C Mallon for Morgan.

Referee: B Cassidy (Derry).