Twins Peak at Midfield

Dale Farm Ulster Club MFC semi-final: Clontibret 0-11 St Gall’s 1-7

Publication: Irish News

Date: 7th January 2002

A solid second half performance, at Shaw’s Road, Belfast, yesterday swept Clontibret into this year’s provincial final. The Corey twins, Vincent and Marty, gave Clontibret’s midfield control during the opening stages but gradually St Gall’s crept back into the hunt and the teams were level three times over the opening quarter hour.

Karl Stewart rifled over two of the losers’ three points in that time and then, after Kevin Niblock had put the losers ahead, Stewart hit another great free-kick on 18 minutes to give the Belfast boys an 0-5 to 0-3 advantage.

Only one more score was landed before half-time and that came from the boot of Clontibret’s Paul McGuigan to leave St Gall’s 0-5 to 0-4 ahead at the interval.

When four-points-man Stewart tossed over another free-kick six minutes after the restart it seemed as if the Belfast side would take control, but the O’Neill’s had other ideas.

After a Vincent Corey dazzling run, McGuigan pointed and then county star Dessie Mone screwed over a magnificent free from far out on the left to level the argument once more at six apiece.
Suddenly, the winners slipped into gear with the Coreys again in midfield control and 17-year-old Magennis steaming through from centre-back. He pointed from far out to give his side the lead, Marty Corey added another from the same distance.

Vincent Corey pointed a free-kick and then, on 51 minutes pointed from long distance to send Clontibret 0-10 to 1-6 ahead.

It looked good for the Monaghan boys but St Gall’s weren’t giving up. A hopeful lob into the goalmouth – their first serious attack in over 10 minutes - bounced off a few hands before Sean McAreavey finished to the net from close range to make it a one-point game and eight minutes left. Another effort for a goal by substitute Paul Higgins came back off a post – the last real chance St Gall’s had of clinching victory.

Again Magennis sliced through for a Clontibret point and on the hour Terry O’Neill narrowed the gap to one point but St Gall’s couldn’t breach the strong Clontibret defence. A nice touch from the losers was that the team lined up and clapped Clontibret off the field.

Clontibret: P McElroy; E Greenan, J McGuigan, C Evans; M McGarrell, B Og Magennis (0-2), P Duffy; V Corey (0-2, one free), M Corey (0-1); S Mulligan, P McGuigan (0-3), D Murphy; N Morgan, D McKeown, D Mone (0-3, one free). Subs: C Duffy for Mulligan (61 mins).

St Gall’s: C O’connor; S Walsh, C Kennedy, S Morrisn; D Sheehan, A McClean, A Healy; K McDonald, G Moore; K Stewart (0-4, three frees), T O’Neill (0-1), K Niblock (0-1); S McAreavey (1-0), J Gilliland, P Gribbon (0-1). Subs: P Higgins for Walsh, inj (45 mins)