By Ronan Scott
r.scott@gaeliclife.com
Ulster Colleges MacRory Cup Group A
Saturday, 11am
St Colman's, Newry v St Mary's CBS
ST MARY'S are experiencing their 'difficult' second season in the MacRory cup, having made such an impact last year when they reached the semi-finals. St Colman's were also semi-finalists last year, but this season they are shaping up to be even better. Their 2-21 to 0-0 demolition of St Eunan's last weekend was proof enough.
Considering that Eunan's have only played one more season than St Mary's in the MacRory Cup, one may expect them to be steam rolled just as Eunan's were.
However, with their passage to the knockout stages secure, Colman's may field an experimental side for this game. As a result St Mary's, who are only playing their second game of the competition having started late because of Mageean Cup commitments, may get a chance to improve on their last result.
Omagh CBS, the side who beat them in the semi-final by a goal last year, gave the Belfast boys a 3-17 to 1-5 hammering last weekend.
St Colman's have already beaten the Abbey 1-15 to 1-6 and they were only one point behind Omagh. However weak a team they field, those results suggest St Mary's will struggle to win on Saturday.
They'll need Declan Lynch, Brendan Bradley and Darren Boyd to up their scoring tallies from the last day out, when they met Omagh.
St Colman's have Down minor star Ross McGarry in flying form as he hit 1-5 against St Eunan's last weekend, while Shane McGreevey goaled that day and Caolan Mooney scored 0-4.
Ulster Colleges MacRory Cup Group A
Saturday, 11am
St Eunan's v Abbey CBS
THE Abbey's win against Armagh last Wednesday went some way to keeping them in the hunt for a place in the knockout stages. They've yet to play Omagh, the favourites to win group A, but no matter how poorly they played against St Colman's in their opening defeat, they should still have enough to see off St Eunan's.
The Donegal outfit, who made a big splash on the colleges scene two years ago when they managed to reach the semi-finals, have had a dismal time of it after three games of MacRory Cup football. Their most recent result was a 2-21 to 0-0 demolition at the hands of St Colman's. They've also suffered a 3-27 to 1-3 mauling against Omagh. But even with those two big guns out of the way, it appears that it will be either Eunan's or Armagh finishing in dead last in the group.
Eunan's will have to watch out for Abbey's goal-den boys Ryan Hudson and James McClean, as both players hit the net against Armagh last time out.
Ulster Colleges MacRory Cup Group A
Saturday, 11am
St Pat's Armagh v Omagh CBS
ARMAGH have played one game so far, a defeat to the Abbey, but this game against Omagh is likely to be yet another loss. Omagh may have secured their place in the knockout rounds, unbeaten so far and they appear to be a side who won't settle for anything less than a clean sweep in all their results.
Armagh lost 3-2 to 0-7 in that clash with the Abbey, but surely the positive they can take is that they hit more scores than their opponents.
Armagh's Padraig Rafferty top-scored against the Abbey, he hit four points – all frees - while Paul McGeown scored two and Cormac O'Neill finished with a point.
Yet conceding three goals against the Abbey does not bode well before they play a team like Omagh who have scored six goals in three games. If Armagh need a stern test for their back line, then they'll get it against Omagh.
Against St Mary's Belfast, who are no mean team, Omagh's Conal Grugan scored 1-5, while John McCullagh and Conor Clarke got 1-1 apiece.
Ulster Colleges MacRory Cup Group B
Saturday, 11am
St Macartan's Monaghan v St Michael's Enniskillen
BOTH these sides pulled off big results mid week which have furthered their chances of making the post-Christmas knock-out stages of the MacRory Cup.
Enniskillen managed a draw against an unbeaten Maghera side, while Macartan's shocked the current MacRory champions St Patrick's Dungannon, with a 0-18 to 2-9 victory.
The Macartan's result boosted them into joint third place in Group B, which is important as third place and above in the two sections gains the team automatic qualification. So on the back of those two results Monaghan have to be slightly favoured to win this clash.
Daniel McKenna's return of 0-7 against Dungannon marks him out as one to watch. Gareth McQuaid hit 0-4 while Liam Hahessey and Gareth McQuaid score 0-3 apiece.
St Michael's Enniskillen may have drawn with Maghera, but they hit more scores, Johnny Feely scored seven points.
Ulster Colleges MacRory Cup Group B
Saturday, 11am
St Mary's, Magherafelt v St Patrick's, Maghera
MAGHERAFELT may not have the biggest team, but they have started their campaign with aplomb, winning all three of their games so far. Most recently they beat Cavan 1-9 to 0-7.
David McGuckin's goal, Conor Kearns three points, and braces from Conor McCann and Aaron Devlin helped Magherafelt edge a victory.
Tomorrow's game is a crunch match though, while both sides are all but assured of a place in the knockout stages, but the clash of these two south Derry rivals is about pride, more than points.
Maghera showed their first signs of weakness when they drew with Enniskillen on Tuesday. Yet with promotion pretty much secured the result will not matter too much, and this could be an exercise for Martin McConnell to test his panel.
Ulster Colleges MacRory Cup Group B
Saturday, 11am
St Pat's Dungannon v St Pat's Cavan
TWO games and only one point suggests that Cavan are struggling this season. Any positives they could take from their draw with Macartans were dashed when they lost by six points to Maghera.
For the past five years Cavan have rarely threatened to make an impact in the competition. They tend to come out all guns blazing at the start of the season, but after two or three matches they drift into insignificance or stop fielding altogether. Their one hope is that Macartans beat Dungannon last Tuesday, which puts Cavan in with a chance of earning a result.
