Trinity players ‘step up’ in decider

MANAGERIAL duo Aidan O’Hagan and Stefan Forker saluted the application and persistence of their players after Holy Trinity secured a comfortable victory over St Nathy’s in the ‘B’ final.

“A few of the boys saved their best until last, which is what you want – boys to step up in the final,” commented Forker as his players celebrated.

“A real team works together and this group has worked really hard. They’ve been playing their club games as well and I think that match fitness showed.”

St Nathy’s found themselves under constant pressure in the opening 15 minutes. Holy Trinity opened a six-point advantage in that spell and the lead at the break was 0-9 0-2.

The second-half was a carbon copy of the first as Holy Trinity held possession and camped in Nathy’s half for large spells.

They remained untroubled at their own end until the 58th minute when St Nathy’s captain Kuba Callaghan fired to the net.

At that stage it wasn’t going to be enough as the Tyrone men and their captain Shane Murphy already had both hands firmly on the Paddy Drummond Cup as Mark Devlin and Tiernan Quinn led the charge up front.

SCORERS – Holy Trinity: T Quinn 0-8 (6f) M Devlin 0-5 (3f), S Murphy 0-3 (1’45), E Gallagher, E Devlin, T Mackle 0-1 each St Nathy’s College: K Callaghan 1-2 (2f), J O’Hara 0-2 (2f), O Phillips (1f), B Molloy 0-1 each

HOLY TRINITY COLLEGE – C Loane; P Quinn, T Quinn, T McNamee; O Mulgrew, C Donnolly, M McKearney; E Gallagher, P Lagan; K Robinson, E Devlin, S Murphy; T Quinn, T Mackle, M Devlin. Subs: C Quinn for E Devlin (43), A Moore for Mackle (44) M Finan for O Hester (52), S McKenna for P Quinn (54), D Canavan for Robinson (55), T Mackle for Donnolly (54)

ST NATHY’S COLLEGE – A Davey; M Dillon, D Casey, B O’Hanlon; S O’Hara, J Lunt, B Molloy; D McBrien, J Doory; O Hester, J O’Hara, L Connor; O Phillips, K Phillips, K Callaghan. Subs: L Hester for Dillon (h/t), M Coyle for J O’Hara (43), A Dillon for K Phillips (54), C Groarke for S O’Hara (56)

REF – J Bermingham (Cork)