St. Pius X Magherafelt fall to last gasp defeat in Danske Bank Treanor Cup semi-final

Dankse Bank Treanor Cup semi-final

St Mark’s Warrenpoint 4-10

St Pius X Magherafelt 3-12 AET

ST PIUS X Magherafelt came up just short in a dramatic Danske Bank Treanor Cup semi-final in Garvaghey on Monday evening. Progress to a final next week against either St Ciarán’s Ballygawley or St Joseph’s Donaghmore came down to a break ball from a kick-out won by Sam Murdock less than 30 seconds from the end of extra time. The ball was quickly moved to Gavin Barry whose last gasp point for St Mark’s Warrenpoint avoided the dreaded penalty shoot-out.

It was really tough on St Pius X who had looked the better team for swathes of normal time. Emmet Spiers was lording midfield while Tiernan McGlone and Deon McManus had pulled the defence together after a shaky start. Up front Calum Leacock was on his game and a threat every time the ball came up.

Yet they couldn't shake off St Mark's who matched them score for score throughout with St Pius X now probably regretting a couple of relatively easy chances midway through the second half.

Overall though it was an entertaining game of end to end football that had six of the seven goals coming in the first half.

Gavin Barry, John Joe O’Hare and Sam Murdock claimed the Warrenpoint strikes while goals from Calum Leacock, Rocco Devlin and Eoghan Musgrave had St Pius X 3-5 to 3-2 ahead at the break.

Magherafelt were maintaining that gap through the second half until O’Hare’s second goal edged Warrenpoint ahead. However St Pius X finished strongly with a point from Musgrave to force extra time on a 4-7 to 3-10 score-line.

The teams exchanged a point each during the first period of extra time and then the same during the second period. However Murdock’s possession and Barry’s score got St Mark’s over the line leaving Magherafelt wondering about what might have been.

St Mark’s: JJ O’Hare 2-2. S Murdock 1-3, G Barry 1-1, D Kelly and S Treanor 0-2 each.

St Pius X: E Musgrave 1-3, R Devlin 1-2, C Leacock 1-1, E Spiers 0-3, P Connery 0-2, A Coyle 0-1