McAteer hails clubs forming the St Pat’s Maghera community

THERE was one Donegal man content with Sunday’s MacRory final result – St Patrick’s, Maghera joint-manager Willie McAteer.

A talented Abbey side were the county’s first team in the final since 1961 but McAteer, born and bred in Fanad, is very much part of the furniture in Derry.

Youth officer in Castledawson, he has taught in St Patrick’s, Maghera for 24 years, where he has looked after younger teams, steering them to Ulster success.

Speaking after Sunday’s dramatic final in Celtic Park, McAteer paid tribute to the local community and the two-way impact.

“It’s a huge occasion, huge for everybody in and around the Maghera area, all the clubs that feed into us,” said McAteer, rattling out a litany of clubs.

“We had two lads from Drumsurn starting and one from Drum. It’s not just the bigger clubs.

“When the boys come in the door, they’re not representing their clubs anymore, they’re representing Maghera and, for the whole community round us, it’s huge.”

Without mentioning his own input, McAteer modestly listed everyone else in the management team.

Former Derry All-Star defenders Sean Marty Lockhart and Chrissy McKaigue.

He pointed to the input of strength and conditioning coach Ollie Cummings, with the school currently putting the finishing touches to a new high-performance gym.

Tiarnán McHugh came in to look after the video analysis side of the equation.

“Having the likes of them boys on board, we’ve been given the set up there,” McAteer added.

“We’ve been given every opportunity to go out there and achieve and thankfully the boys really bought into that this year, it was massive.”

On the game itself, it was a tale of two spells. The two quickfire Conor McCahill goals and the Maghera comeback.

“We were caught just with mistakes maybe more so than being torn apart,” he said of the electric Abbey start.

“I felt that the other way, we’d opened them up a few times and maybe left a couple of chances behind us.

“We had good goal chances and we ended up coming away with nothing from them.

“Even though we were four down, we still felt at half time that we’re very, very much in the game.

“We felt as though we’d opened them up a bit easier going one way. We knew if we could tighten up and stop conceding at the other that we would get right back into it.”