St Marys 1-10 Cortown 0-9

St Marys concluded their group campaign in the Junior B championship with a comeback win against a determined Cortown side in Paddy O’Brien park on Sunday.

Conditions weren’t ideal from the start, with a strong cross wind making things that little bit trickier for both teams early on. 

Cortown settled the quickest and took an early lead through pointer Hugh Staunton and Davy Rispin frees, and it could have been worse for the Donore/Rosnaree men only for a tackle from the excellent Liam Lynch with Staunton bearing down on goal. Marys were finding it hard to fashion an opening early on against a very stubborn Cortown defence, and finally broke through for opening scores through Joey Greene and a Cormac Victory free. 

This brought Marys within one, but that was as good as it got in the first half. Cortown pulled into a 4 point lead through further frees from Staunton and a Brían Smith score. Despite being on top in the possession stakes, Marys were running into a wall of Cortown bodies with every attack and going into half time, shooting into the town end in the second half it looked ominous for the Boynesiders with the score 0-7 to 0-3 in favour of Cortown. 

Going into the second half, Marys knew a big improvement was needed. The early minutes of the second half mirrored the first, with the sides trading scores, Staunton with an excellent effort from the ground and C Victory as reliable as ever on frees keeping Marys in touch. The intensity was taking its toll on both teams, but as the half wore on towards the halfway stage Marys started to find a second wind. L Lynch kicked an excellent placed ball off the ground to keep his side in touch, Tadhg Dixon followed this up with a well taken score to narrow the gap further, before a pinpoint C Victory free from wide on the right brought the sides level. At this point, Marys were in the ascendency but Cortown were still dangerous on the counter attack.

The defining moment of the game came within the last 5 minutes of normal time. A shot from Dylan Bagnall found its way towards the square, and in the resulting scramble the ball came to Sam Victory. Despite losing possession he done well to retrieve it and pulled on the loose ball to send the ball into the roof of net, sending the Marys support wild. Cortown pushed for a goal forcing an excellent save from St Marys keeper Derek O’Brien. Marys broke down the other end of the field, and substitute William McSweeney calmly slotted over the insurance point to leave a 4 point gap between the teams. Cortown pushed for a goal once more but the Marys defence stood resolute and greeted the final whistle from referee Gus Martyn with joy, knowing a top 4 quarter final spot is now as good as secured.

An enthralling encounter overall, and one that seen immense character from the Marys men to come back from the brink, scoring 1-5 in the last 15 mins of the game.

St Marys: Derek O’Brien; Liam Lynch, Conor O’Brien, John Spain; Adam Craven, Dylan Bagnall, Ronan Everard; Sam Victory, Joey Greene; Cormac Victory, Tadhg Dixon, Sean Nulty; Liam O’Brien, James Lynch, Ben Loughran. 

Subs: Tadhg Lynch for Everard, William McSweeney for O’Brien, Eoin Kelleher for J Lynch, Gary Slevin for Nulty. 

Referee: Gus Martyn

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