{"id":168127,"date":"2025-11-30T20:38:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T20:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/168127\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T20:38:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T20:38:08","slug":"scotstown-win-epic-to-book-ulster-sfc-final-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/168127\/","title":{"rendered":"Scotstown win epic to book Ulster SFC final spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scotstown (Monaghan) 2-20 Newbridge (Derry) 2-20 – Scotstown win 4-2 on penalties<\/p>\n

Brave Scotstown held their nerve in a dramatic penalty shoot-out to finally crack Newbridge and secure their Ulster club SFC final place.<\/p>\n

Level after full-time and extra-time in Armagh city, it took spot kicks to separate the Monaghan and Derry champions with Scotstown eventually prevailing in wet and wild conditions.<\/p>\n

Goalkeeper Rory Beggan, Jack McCarron, Kieran Hughes and Darren Hughes slotted all four of the kicks that Scotstown took and with Newbridge twice failing to convert, that was that.<\/p>\n

A week after the sides’ original semi-final fixture was abandoned at half-time in Omagh due to dangerous conditions, it amounted to a marathon fixture that ran to nearly two hours in total.<\/p>\n

Finishing on the losing side was tough on Newbridge and captain Sean McAteer in particular as he’d twice intervened for his team, grabbing the equalising scores that forced both extra-time and penalties.<\/p>\n

In all, Newbridge fought back from eight points behind with 54 minutes on the clock in normal time to force the additional 20 minutes, scoring 1-05 without response.<\/p>\n

But four-times champions Scotstown still managed to find a way to make it through to their ninth final and the 2023 runners-up will face Kilcoo back in Armagh on Saturday, 13 December.<\/p>\n

\"30
\nScotstown goalkeeper Rory Beggan saves a penalty in the shootout<\/p>\n

All of their big guns fired again with veteran Hughes, along with his brother Kieran, digging so deep on the afternoon while Micheal McCarville and Tommy Mallen registered 2-05 between them.<\/p>\n

Newbridge’s second-half comeback in normal time was all the more impressive as they were nine behind at the interval.<\/p>\n

Scotstown registered three two-pointers in that first-half, from Mattie Maguire, McCarville and roving goalkeeper Beggan.<\/p>\n

If the Scotstown gameplan was to get quality, fast ball down to their forwards, and to press up hard on the subsequent Newbridge kick-out, it worked a treat.<\/p>\n

McCarville’s sixth minute goal was a case in point as Scotstown won their own kick-out and quickly worked the ball down the pitch.<\/p>\n

Mattie Maguire was heavily involved in that goal and when Scotstown won the subsequent kick-out, the ball was played to him again for their first two-pointer.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, Scotstown held a 1-02 to 0-01 lead and were in a commanding position.<\/p>\n

Maguire’s next score, in the 20th minute, was another that came straight off the training ground; Ryan O’Tooole, back after suspension, winning a ball back in defence and launching a rapid counter-attack that ended with Maguire pointing.<\/p>\n

Still, Newbridge looked dangerous when they did get the ball forward. They played a shorter, more intricate passing game and grabbed a vital foothold in the game when they netted in the 17th minute.<\/p>\n

Quick hands in the danger area worked an opening for Patrick McMullan who had time to turn and shoot.<\/p>\n

Oisin Doherty was a constant threat too and pinched two first-half points for the back-to-back Derry champions.<\/p>\n

But Hughes, wearing number 14, made life difficult for Newbridge as an auxiliary defender.<\/p>\n

When former Monaghan star Darren Hughes did push forward and join the attack, he made sure it was worth it, picking off points in the 10th and 34th minutes.<\/p>\n

That latter score for Hughes left Scotstown 1-14 to 0-04 clear but it was against the run of play as Newbridge rallied.<\/p>\n

Now the Derry men had the wind, like the first-half in Omagh a week earlier, and made better use of it this time.<\/p>\n

\"30
\nSean Young of Newbridge celebrates after kicking a two-point score<\/p>\n

Eamon Young sniped a point. Then the increasingly influential McAteer drilled a two-pointer before winning a free that Doherty converted for another two points.<\/p>\n

Just five points stood between the teams now, 1-14 to 1-09, but Newbridge’s momentum was halted by an Oisin Doherty point attempt from a routine free that dropped short.<\/p>\n

Sensing opportunity, Scotstown pounced. Hughes, yet again, played a central role as they conjured a goal, picking out Mattie Maguire who passed across for Mallen to palm home.<\/p>\n

Play had barely restarted when Mallen got on the ball again and stroked over a point, opening up a 2-14 to 1-09 lead for Scotstown. With six minutes to go, they were still eight points clear at 2-16 to 1-11. Surely they couldn’t be caught?<\/p>\n

But they were because Newbridge simply refused to relent, reeling them in score by score and picking off 1-05 without response to take the game to extra-time. Conor Doherty’s 58th minute goal ignited the comeback, capitalising after a quick Eamon Young free was played to Oisin Doherty and across to Conor.<\/p>\n

But it was McAteer who needed to show all his leadership in the third minute of stoppage time, curling over the equaliser to make it 2-16 apiece.<\/p>\n

Both sides split six points evenly between them in the first-half of extra-time, leaving it tied at 2-19 apiece.<\/p>\n

That suited Scotstown more as they had the wind for the vital last 10 minutes but they couldn’t take advantage.<\/p>\n

McCarron did curl over a beauty in the 75th minute which looked like it might be the winner but McAteer intervened yet again to fist over the leveller two minutes into stoppage time.<\/p>\n

Scotstown: Rory Beggan (0-04, 1 tp, 1 tpf); Donnchadh Connolly, Ryan O’Toole, Damien McArdle; Darragh Murray, Shane Carey (0-01), Darren Hughes (0-02); Micheal McCarville (1-03; 1tp), Gavin McPhillips; Max Maguire, Kieran Hughes, Francis Maguire (0-03); Tommy Mallen (1-02), Jack McCarron (0-02, 0-01f), Mattie Maguire (0-03, 1 tp).<\/p>\n

Subs: Nicky Sherlock for Max Maguire 51, Conor McCarthy for Francis Maguire 53. Max Maguire for Mallen 65, James Hamill for Connolly h\/t e\/t, Jason Carey for Mattie Maguire 76.<\/p>\n

Newbridge: Nathan Rocks; Conleth McGrogan (0-02, tp), Shane McGrogan, Mark McGrogan; Patrick McMullan (1-00), Conor McGrogan, Padraig McGrogan; Callum McGrogan (0-01), Conor Doherty (1-00); Cathair McBride, Mark Doherty, Eamon Young (0-02, 0-01f); Conor McAteer (0-04, 1 tp), Sean Young (0-04, 1 tp), Oisin Doherty (0-06, 2 tp).<\/p>\n

Subs: Odhran McGlone (0-01) for McMullan 45, Dessie McColgan for McBride 47, Killian Burke for Mark Doherty 54, Mark Doherty for Eamon Young 76, Shea McAteer for Callum McGrogan 79.<\/p>\n

Referee: Joe McQuillan (Cavan).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scotstown (Monaghan) 2-20 Newbridge (Derry) 2-20 – Scotstown win 4-2 on penalties Brave Scotstown held their nerve in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-168127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}