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06 Sept 2025
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06 Sept 2025
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Ballinderry's Niall O'Donnell was named Sunday's Man of the Match. Pic by Mary K Burke
Niall O’Donnell is modesty personified and hailed the input of the St Mary’s Magherafelt fans in Sunday’s showpiece clash in Armagh.
You don’t need to be talking to him long to realise the Ballinderry youngster has the grounding to go with the talent.
After lighting up Sunday’s showpiece in Armagh, the Ballinderry youngster was very matter of fact about his input.
Three minutes into the game, he latched onto a Ryan McEldowney pass before slotting neatly to the corner of the Cookstown net and pulled two further saves out of goalkeeper Rian Smith.
“We were very good at running the ball and there are always boys making runs,” said O’Donnell, the first Ballinderry man to pick up the Iggy Jones Man of the Match award since Adrian McGuckin in 1995.
“The ball was popped into me and it opened up so I got the goal. It was the same for our second goal that Cahir (Quinn) scored, with forwards making forward runs ahead of the ball.”
Celebrations after winning the MacRory Cup. Pic by Mary K Burke.
O’Donnell was part of the Derry minor winning team of 2020, but the pandemic left them playing in front of paltry attendances on their high octane run to glory.
“That was the biggest crowd we ever played in front of,” said O’Donnell, who commented how much of a difference it meant.
“It was a great atmosphere and the fans were great. They gave us the buzz and we were able to win a game with it.
“It keeps you going when you are feeling a wee bit tired, the crowd gave you an extra lift.”
After hitting two early goals, the Magherafelt side needed all the support they would get during a rocky second quarter against a rampant Holy Trinity team that used their size to box them into their own defence.
“They kept the ball and we couldn’t really get it off them,” O’Donnell said. “We came in at half time and we knew we needed to have a big second half performance or else the game was going to run away from us.”
Leading by three points (2-1 to 0-4), St Mary’s felt they hadn’t reached the heights of earlier in the competition and it took the management team to sit them down before pointing them in the right direction.
“We went out there and kicked a few scores to settle the nerves and we went from there,” he concluded.
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