The Magherafelt team then took control and hit three points on the bounce from Fintan McGurk and Shea Murphy (2). Patrick Feeney then had a mazy run through the opposition defence before laying the ball off to Colin McKeever. He blasted to the net to put NRC in the lead after fourteen minutes. Crossmaglen fought back with points from Morris and Kearns(2) before the same player blasted to the net after a good sweeping movement down the field. Paddy Feeney had the last Magherafelt point of the half to leave the half time score 2-3 to 1-4 for St Josephs.
Magherafelt made an excellent start to the second half with two points from Feeney and Murphy. Murphy who was Magherafelts outstanding player on the day was causing havoc in the Cross defence. Unfortunately a breakaway goal from midfielder Dzinkevicius stopped the flow and both teams were level again after fifteen minutes of the second half. The young Crossmaglen keeper then changed the tone of the whole game. He moved to midfield to replace an injured player and immediately set up a point, created a goal chance scored two points from play and still had time to pick up a black card. Magherafelt won back midfield through the hard working F McGurk and points from Feeney and Murphy (3) kept them in contention going into the final phase of the game. NRC were now down four points going into the last five minutes and threw caution to the win. They attacked from all angles and clawed back two points from Murphy and Clarke. In the dying seconds McGurk had a great goal effort charged down and Cross advanced to the all Ireland semi final on a three point winning margin.
Ronan O’Neill and Barry McCormick excelled in the NRC defence with McGurk a very willing and skilled worker in mid field. Shea Murphy hit six points from play and created havoc in the cross defence every time he was on the ball. He was ably assisted up from Michael Clarke and Patrick Feeney with McKeever weighing in with a good goal. Overall NRC will be happy with their display in their first year in the competition and have got the potential to progress further next year.
Team: Seaghda McCusker, Andy Walker, Gavin McGreevey, Ronan O’Neill, Michael McElwee, Barry McCormick, Ben McAllister, Fintan McGurk (0-1), Cathan Quinn, Ruiari Graffin, Shea Murphy (0-6), Conan Mcaleese, Michael Clarke (0-1), Patrick Feeney (0-3), Colin McKeever (1-0). Subs Padraig Mackle for A Walker, Ryan Graffin for CMcAleese, Oisin Cassidy, Ronan Brown, Caolan Diamond, Jamie Spiers.
