McKaigue leads Slaughneil as Vins dream ends

Sat, 11th February 2017

ST VINCENT'S 0-10 SLAUGTHNEIL (Derry) 0-12

St Vincent's All-Ireland dream is over after being defeated by Derry and Ulster champions, Slaughtneil, by two points in Saturday afternoon's semi-final at Páirc Esler, Newry.

In a defensively-minded game Vincent's struggled to gain a dominant foothold in the game and were frustrated by a well-organized Slaughneil defensive system.

Chrissy McKaigue was the star man for the Derry men and his four points over the hour went a long way to leading his men to Croke Park.

Goal chances were at a minimum though Vincent's went closest in the seventh minute of the second half when Enda Varley, Vincent's best performer, got a strong fist to a Tomás Quinn '45' dropping short but keeper Antoin McMullan made a super save to push the ball around the posts.

The sides were level a minute later, 0-7 each, when Gavin Burke fired over following a well-worked '45' - his first of two fine points - but then Slaughtneil make a decisive move when hitting three points in-a-row through Chrissy McKaigue, Chris Bradley and Shane McGuigan to move 0-10 to 0-7 clear.

The Marino side almost caught up late on when Enda Varley and Shane Carthy found the target but as the game approached the end of normal time a free from Tomás Quinn from wide on the left faded across the face of the goal and Slaughtneil had the bodies back in numbers to work the ball out of defence.

Vincent's also had two players black-carded with Cormac Diamond and Brendan Egan both sent to the line in the second half.

In the opening half Vincent's best spell of the game game in the early stages with three quick-fire points from Enda Varley (free), Nathan Mullins and Diarmuid Connolly had Tommmy Conroy's men 0-3 to 0-1 to the good inside 11 minutes.

However, they couldn't build on this and Slaughtneil's patient play until the right man became available began to pay dividends and they soon worked themselves back into the game.

Vincent's led 0-6 to 0-5 at the interval thanks to a late Enda Varley point but the Derry champions restarted the better with points from Chrissy McKaigue from long-range and a Paul Bradley free after Michael Savage was deemed to have over-carried the ball.

The signs were on it at this stage that the balance of power was with Slaughneil and their three point salvo just before the three-quarter stage was enough to see them to victory.

SCORERS -Slaughtneil: C McKaigue 0-4, C Bradley, Shane McGuigan 0-3 (0-2f), Paul Bradley 0-2 (0-2f). St Vincent's: E Varley 0-5 (0-2f), G Burke 0-2, D Connolly, N Mullins, S Carthy 0-1 each.

SLAUGHTNEIL: A McMullan; F McEldowney, B Rodgers, K McKaigue; P McNeill, C McKaigue, K Feeney; Patsy Bradley, P Cassidy; Shane McGuigan, Paul Bradley, M McGrath; C Bradley, Se McGuigan, C O'Doherty. Subs: R Bradley for Se McGuigan (54), B McGuigan for K McKaigue (BC, 64).

ST VINCENT'S: M Savage; M Concarr, J Curley, C Wilson; B Egan, G Brennan, Cameron Diamond; N Mullins, S Carthy; G Burke, D Connolly, Cormac Diamond; R Trainor, E Varley, T Quinn. Subs: A Martin for Trainor (46), J Feeney for Cormac Diamond (BC, 61), K Golden for Cameron Diamond (67), F Breathnach for Mullins (58), S McCusker for Egan (BC, 62).

REF: P Neilan (Roscommon).