By Niall Gartland

CAPTAINING Abbey VS into their first ever MacRory Cup final carries with it a certain degree of responsibility, but Turlough Carr is accustomed to bringing his ‘A’ game to the big day.

One of 13 starting members hailing from the back-to-back Ulster Minor champions Four Masters, it’s probably no coincidence that Abbey VS have gelled magnificently in their maiden run to the premier Ulster Schools competition.

Carr says expectations were fairly modest heading into the competition, but they soon learnt that they were more than fit for this level.

“We didn’t expect to win the MacLarnon to be honest. This year we were able to bring in more young lads and we went into the MacRory Cup. Again we weren’t expecting much, we were looking to compete well and make it out of our group stage. We learnt after our first game that we were well able for it and kicked on from there. It was against St Patrick’s in Dungannon, they were in the final last year, we went up and played a really good game against them and started believing from then.”

It’s impossible to avoid the Four Masters factor in any appraisal of this Abbey VS team. They were something of a sleeping giant in Donegal, but have produced a golden generation at underage level and the hope is that it’ll now translate at senior level.

Carr said: “Everyone’s bought into the plan, we’ve been very well coached and there’s been a lot of people involved with the club who saw the potential in the young players. It’s been a really good journey, the potential was there since we were young so they came in and coached us very well. We’ve won many tournaments at underage level and we’ll be looking to carry on at senior level.”

Carr also says that it would be foolish to read anything into their final opponents St Patrick’s, Maghera’s low-scoring victory over St Patrick’s, Armagh at the semi-final juncture. The 0-5 to 1-0 scoreline makes for grim reading but it was an awfully blustery day and their opponents had adopted a particularly defensive mindset.

“They’re a big school with a lot of history but we’ve shown we can compete. We watched their semi-final, it was low-scoring but probably doesn’t reflect on what type of team they are because of the conditions that day. We’re looking forward to another big test.”