Danske Bank Bro Ennis Shield final
St Malachy’s Belfast 6-7 Aquinas Grammar 6-5
ST Malachy’s won the all-Belfast shoot-out at An Spórtlann yesterday for the Danske Bank Bro Ennis Shield but the trophy could well have gone to the Ravenhill Road as Aquinas Grammar rattled the cross-bar in the dying minutes.
St Malachy’s got the better start with goals from Brendan Herdman and Odhrán Kelly. But a hat-trick from Player of the Match Aidan Holmes and a brace from Conor Daly put Aquinas ahead and they went in at the break with an advantage of eight points despite a third goal for St Malachy’s via Breadan Finnegan.
The second half turned out to be a real battle with Aquinas playing against the breeze now. They edged closer with three-pointers from Herdman and the excellent Codhrán O’Rourke.
The turning point was a penalty that Finnegan buried to edge St Malachy’s into the lead and they were able to maintain that gap despite points from Holmes, Alex Jackman and Anton Doras.
Those points were cancelled out in turn by Conor Stewart, Sean Doran and Aidan Johnstone to get St Malachy’s over the line.
St Malachy’s:
B Finnegan 2-1, B Herdman 2-0, C O’Rourke 1-2, O Kelly 1-1, C Stewart 0-2, A Johnstone and S Doran 0-1 each.
Aquinas:
A Holmes 3-4, C Daly 2-0, A Doras 1-1, A Jackson 0-1