Abbey Win Battle Of The Brothers’

Danske Bank MacRory Cup Semi Final
Omagh CBS 0-15 Abbey CBS 1-14

Abbey CBS produced a brilliant second-half comeback at Fintona last night to beat a fancied Omagh CBS side and qualify for their first MacRory Cup final since 2006.

Omagh led by 0-10 to 0-6 at the break but the winners went on the attack straight from the restart to win a penalty, which Charlie McGrath tucked away. That early score gave them serious belief with man-of-the-match Diarmaid O’Rourke to the fore with a superb haul of 0-9.

It was a wonderful advert for schools’ football from the first whistle to the last. Omagh started well with a brace of two-pointers from Thomas Meenan, but Abbey responded with two orange flags from O’Rourke.

There was little between the sides but as the interval approached Omagh tagged on points from James Maguire, Michael McNamee and Peter Colton free to give them that four-point cushion at the turnaround.

After the penalty, Harley Patton and Ryan O’Hare swapped points before a two-pointer from a 40th-minute O’Rourke free put Abbey ahead for the first time.

It was an advantage that they were never to lose, with Dan McKernan and O’Rourke pushing that out to three by the three-quarter mark.

It was all Abbey at this stage and when McKernan converted a monster free off the ground they led by five and were well in control.

Diarmaid Martin and O’Rourke swapped points before a two-pointer from the former gave Omagh hope.

Cathal Farley then left two between the sides, but despite having a couple of chances, a resolute Abbey defence held out to book a decider against St Patrick’s, Dungannon.

SCORERS
Omagh:
T Meenan 0-4 (2pt); D Martin 0-3 (1pt); M McNamee & C Farley 0-2 each;
R Baxter, J Maguire, P Colton (f) & H Patton 0-1

Abbey:
D O’Rourke 0-9 (3tpt, 0-2f);
D McKernan 0-3 (1pt, 0-1m);
C McGrath 1-0;
K McEntee & R O’Hare 0-1

By Kevin Kelly Published in the Irish News 26/01/26
Photo by Brian Hamill