Mattock Rangers win 2024 Paddy Sheelan Cup

Mattock Rangers secured the 2024 Powerscreen New England Paddy Sheelan Cup when they overcame St. Joseph's by a point in the final at Darver on Saturday night.

A Cathal Fleming free in the dying seconds of the game ensured the Collon side collected the trophy for the first time since 2017, and the third time overall.

Mattock's started the game brightly and hit the net within the first minute when midfielder Ben McKenna finished off a fine move by blasting the ball past St. Joseph's goalkeeper Stephen Carron from close range.

Seán Flynn and Fleming followed up a point each for the Buzzards before St. Joe's chalked their first point of the game on ten minutes through the left foot of Alan Quigley.

The Dromiskin side scored the next four points without reply courtesy of a Quigley 45, Conal McCaul, and two points from Gabriel Bell.

A point from Mattock centre half-forward, Oisin McKenna, and a mark by Fleming at the end of the first half gave Fergus Flynn's team a two-point lead at the half-time interval.

Half time: Mattock Rangers 1-4 to St. Joseph's 0-5

Mattock's began the second half in the same fashion they started the game, by scoring a goal. McKenna found the net within 60 seconds to extend their advantage by a further three points.

A resilient St. Joseph's rallied their efforts and scored four points without a response to close the margin to a point.

Jack Mulligan put the ball past Stephen Smith in the Mattock's goal to level things 2-7 to 1-10 with 15 minutes played in the second half.

Oisin McGuinness converted a free to put Tom Franklin's team a point in front before a composed Fleming scored two frees in the final minutes to secure victory for Mattock's. 

It finished Mattock Rangers 2-9 St. Joseph's 1-11 at the full-time whistle to make sure the Paddy Sheelan Cup returns to Collon once more.

When speaking to the Dundalk Democrat after the game, Mattock's David Reid stated: “It's just great!

“Fergus Flynn, the manager, needs a lot of credit for this for rounding up the team at the start of the year and he has got them in a really good place.

“Both, psychologically and the physical aspect – which is still a work in progress. We take every game as competitive and want to go and win them all.

“We started at the group stages, progressed and then we started to gain a bit of momentum. It's great to be playing competitive games like this one,” he said.

“It was another great game of football. I thought it was end-to-end and could have gone either way but it was great to collect a trophy.”

He added: “That is the Mattock's ninth senior trophy in all competitions, so I'm absolutely delighted for the lads and the effort they put in. To squeeze out a result in a tight game like that was very, very pleasing.”

When describing the close-fought final and talented opposition, the former Louth Minor manager went on to say: “The Joe's were moving very well and had about 60% or 70% possession.

“We had to be disciplined in our defence a lot of the time, which we did, we worked very hard. But they have some class players.

“You look at the guys who have been involved in the county for the past couple of years like Conal (McCaul), Oisin (McGuinness), and (Alan) Quigley inside, they've a really formidable outfit.

He concluded by saying: “It's just very, very pleasing to come out the right side of it because they are an incredible team, and I wish them all the best for the year ahead.”

Mattock Rangers: Stephen Smith; Eoin McCloskey, Cillian Hickey, Tom Grimes; Alan Carragher, Shane Maguire, Caolán Nulty; Ben McKenna (1-0), Jason Condon; Dáire Englishby, Oisín McKenna (1-1), Ronan Kilbane (0-1); Seán Flynn (0-2, 1f), James Carragher, Cathal Fleming (0-6, 3f, 1m)

Substitutes: Adrain Reid for Jason Condon (29'), Terry Donegan for Eoin McCloskey (47'), JP Watters for Ronan Kilbane (52')

St. Joseph's: Stephen Carron; Cian Sheridan, Michael Staunton, Aidan Kieran; Killian McDonnell, Gabriel Bell (0-2), David Kiernan; Ben Mulligan, Conor Neary (0-1); Jack Mulligan (1-1), Craig Doherty, Conal McCaul (0-2, 1f); Alan Quigley (0-3, 1 45), Oisín McGuinness (0-2, 2f), Ben Collier

Substitutes: Killian Staunton for Ben Mulligan (47'), Conal Smyth for Jack Mulligan (52'), Ciarán Johnston for Alan Quigley (47')

Referee: Paul Finnegan (St. Patrick's)