Aghadrumsee 4-15 Brookeborough 1-06

Eddie Courtney hit three goals in four minutes as Aghadrumsee bounced back from their opening quarter-final defeat to book a place in this year’s semi-final against Coa as they pushed Brookeborough aside last Saturday.

An impressive display in front of the posts saw Jason O’Connor’s side rack up a 4-15 to 1-06 win as Damien McCarville’s second half strike added to Courtney’s hat-trick.

Speaking after the game, manager O’Connor said: “I thought the lads were excellent, we got a great start and within 15 minutes we had pulled away, and look we didn't let Brookeborough back into it as we knew that if we give them a chance at all they would come at us strong.

"So, it was a good overall performance and got to look at other lads who came into the team and performed very well but we won't be getting carried away by no means.

"Now we just keep the heads down and fully focus for Coa on Sunday.”

The teams traded scores from early frees through Aidan Bannon and Conor Howell.

Darren Kearns then curled over a left-footed effort and that was added to by Bannon and Kearns again.

The Magpies swooped in for their first goal on 12 minutes as Kearns caught the following kick-out from his point and offloaded to Daniel Crudden, who played a ball inside to Courtney, and he turned his man to fire into the bottom left corner.

Aodhan Durnian made a driving run down the centre just a minute later and fed Courtney who blasted in a second goal.

After McCarville pointed, Bannon lifted his head to loft in a high ball towards the square that was caught by Courtney and again he turned quickly and found the bottom left corner in a whirlwind four minutes that stretched Aghadrumsee’s lead emphatically.

On 18 minutes, Courtney received a ball out wide and spun inside before clipping over for a point. Brookeborough hit back with a goal after 23 minutes as Rhys Bogue’s 45’ was tipped into the air by goalkeeper Gerard Grew and Damian Curran palmed the rebound into the net.

A Durnian 45’ and a Howell free concluded the first-half, 3-07 to 1-02. Two early second half Bannon frees were followed by points from Patrick Woods and Conal McDonagh as McCarville then fired in a fourth goal after being played in by Enda McCabe.

Rhys Bogue and Dylan Bogue pointed for the Heber Mahons but Aghadrumsee hit the next four points via Martin O’Hara, Bannon, Durnian and Courtney.

Brookeborough’s Eoin McCarney had the ball in the net but was penalised for a foul.

Durnian concluded the game with two points including a silky kick off the outside of the right boot.