By Michael McMullan

ST Patrick’s, Maghera captain Cahal McKaigue hailed the leadership within the side. And, boy, did they need it. As mountains to climb go, Sunday’s MacRory Cup decider couldn’t have come much steeper.

Abbey came to Celtic Park with form. Finals are nervous days. They take on a life of their own. Young talent doesn’t always deliver.

By the time Abbey’s Conor McCahill stepped inside to curl his first point, he had hit the net twice.

At the other end, Maghera were wasteful. Incisive but wasteful. Balls went wide. They pinged off the post. Abbey bodies flung themselves in the way.

You could almost hear the “it wasn’t our day” narrative fluttering in the Derry air.

Except, it never entered the Maghera players’ mindset. By half time, they had stopped turning over the ball. They’d missed chances and Abbey were four ahead.

More importantly, they had 10 minutes of solace in the dressing room to get their ducks in a row.

“All the boys, we know each other that well, we have that sort of trust in each other,” McKaigue said of the half-time message.

Speaking after the game, joint manager Sean Marty Lockhart admitted to a few choice words been spoken but they knew they had the players to turn the tide.

McKaigue’s thoughts were the same. Half-time changed everything.

“As soon as we came out, after that first score, we just kept piling on the scores,” the skipper said of the moment he felt the tide turning.

“When we were on top of them, they couldn’t keep up with us.”

Back to the two goals. In footballing terms, it was the darkest of corners but McKaigue highlighted the key factor – the maturity of the players in blue, black and white. They had this.

“We knew nothing was too big for us, we just went out, everybody knew we and came out with a win,” he added.

While the Abbey team were backboned with players who had won titles with both school and club, the Maghera squad had walked the walk.

McKaigue was one of the Maghera spine to have tasted All-Ireland minor glory with Derry. Four of the starting team had Ulster final joy with Dungiven against the Four Masters players in the Abbey corner. Massive experience.

When the chips were down on Sunday, it was time to dig in. McKaigue mixed a role at full-back as his marker Tiernan McBride drifted.

Niall McNicholl won vital balls. Finbarr McShane kicked a point while tracking playmaker Kevin Muldoon. Padraig O’Kane sat with Conor McCahill. Cormac Óg McCloskey kicked four points. Each as important as the next.

Darragh Doherty, Darragh O’Neill and Pádraig Haran ran everywhere. It made the Abbey playmakers defend.

“Every single man on our team is a leader, every single man,” McKaigue said with conviction. They were all in it together.

“The people coming off the bench, Kevin Barry (Mullan) came off the bench, made a massive push on the game, won crucial balls. Everyone trusts everyone on our team.”

McKaigue credited Abbey and their attack. It brought danger that Maghera had to watch like a hawk.

“We knew we had to dig in deep, there were places we knew we had to go to and just did the job,” he said, pointing to the crux of their second-half comeback.

It was a performance built on the togetherness of living in each other’s pockets during the school year. They pulled together and met the challenges head on.

“We did over 100 sessions this year, so the work was done,” McKaigue concluded. “The managers put great belief in us from the start of the year, they said you deserve nothing but you deserve a chance and we took our chance today.”