MATTOCK RANGERS 1-12
ST PATRICKS 0-14

A David Reid point deep into injury time clinched the Cardinal O'Donnell Cup for Mattock Rangers as they edged out St Patricks in Dunleer on Sunday afternoon.

The Collon men caused the upset of the season when they defeated the County Champions and in the process brought the Pats long unbeaten run to an end.

The Lordship men went into the game as raging hot favourites to complete a second successive league and championship double, but they can have few complaints about the outcome as they failed to get anywhere near their best over the hour.

On the other hand, the Collon men rolled back the years as they played with great determination throughout and in the crucial closing stages showed the greater hunger, and ultimately got their reward thanks to Reid's late score.

The early indications were that this game was going to form as the Pats fired over the first three points through Danny O'Connor (2) and Conor Grogan despite playing into the wind.

However, the Collon men were given the boost they needed when a fine moved opened up the defence and ended with Daniel Bannon hitting the net from close range.

That score gave Rangers a huge sense of self-belief and they added further scores from David Reid (2) and Christy Grimes in reply to a Paddy Keenan free to lead by 1-3 to 0-4 after 16 minutes.

Danny O'Connor and Karl White levelled soon after but there was no suggestion that Mattock were going to give up the fight and a late Reid free saw them lead by 1-7 to 0-8 at the break.

The peninsula side lifted the pace at the start of the second half and began to dominate proceedings as they rattled over points from Eoghan Lafferty, O'Connor, Eamonn Breen, Grogan and Aidan McCann to lead by 0-13 to 1-7 after 46 minutes.

It looked as if the defending champions would ease to victory but they were hampered by the loss of Lafferty, White and Patrick Kirk to a lengthening injury list, and lost their rhythm in the closing quarter.

Sensing that the game was not beyond them, Mattock began to play with renewed vigour and were rewarded when the old reliable trio of David Reid, Christy Grimes and Adrian Reid pointed to level at 1-10 to 0-13 with five minutes remaining.

The drama that had been missing for much of the game arrived in the closing minutes when Grimes landed a free with seconds remaining in normal time.

However, it looked as if St Pats would secure a draw when a rather soft free allowed Paddy Keenan to level with his effort going over via the post.

With almost everyone waiting to hear Gabriel McKenny sound the full time whistle, Mattock pressed forward and not for the first time, David Reid came up trumps with a fine point under pressure to secure victory and allow captain, Robbie Brennan, to lift the O'Donnell Cup.

MATTOCK RANGERS: Jason McKeown; Ivor Sherlock, David Brennan, Sean Gilsenan; Terry Donegan 0-1, Daire Englishby, Niall Callan; Daniel Bannon 1-0, Adrian Reid 0-1; Hugh Donnelly, Christy Grimes 0-4, Ryan Leneghan; Aaron O'Brien, Robbie Brennan, David Reid 0-6. Sub: Alan Caraher for R Leneghan.

ST PATRICKS: Barry Corcoran; Kevin Toner, Darren O'Hanlon, Patrick Kirk; Kevin White, Dessie Finnegan, Owen Zamboglou; Paddy Keenan 0-3, Eamonn Breen 0-1; Aidan McCann 0-1, Karl White 0-2, Eoghan Lafferty 0-1; Daniel O'Connor 0-4, Eoin O'Connor, Conor Grogan 0-2. Subs: Alan O'Connor for E Lafferty, Cathal Grogan for K White, Daniel Rice for P Kirk.

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