McCartan's men beat in Final - 01/03/04

Sigerson Cup Final: Queen's University Belfast 1-07 Sligo IT 1-10

A star packed Sligo IT side had too much class for James McCartan's battling Queen's outfit in a hard fought Sigerson Cup final at Corrigan Park, Belfast.

With a team littered with intercounty stars, favourites Sligo IT used the experience of their key men to grind out an impressive win over Queen's, who for their part had shocked UCD in Friday's semi-finals.

Despite the number of stars on show, Queens made the Connacht College work hard for the win and matched them point for point in the opening 25-minutes, before Sligo made a burst before the half time whistle. The sides were deadlocked at 0-3 apiece before Kevin Cassidy, Michael Moyles and Pat Kelly fired over in first half injury time to alter the look of the game.

Those scores allowed Sligo to express themselves more in the second period, and when Queens rattled them late on, they also proved to be the margin of victory.

Annaclones Aidan Fagan, whose free taking kept Queens alive, reduced the deficit on the resumption before Sligo scored their crucial goal. David Warde collected a Paul Finlay pass and made no mistake in firing low to the Queens net, to give his side a comfortable five-point advantage.

Finlay further stretched the lead after good work by Christy Toye before the sides swapped points on a couple of occasions.

Late on Billy Joe Padden fired home Queen's goal and despite some late pressure, Sligo held on to collect their second Sigerson in the space of three years.

In total Down had six players on Queen's starting line up - five of which started in the forward line: Dan McCartan (Burren), Aidan Carr (Clonduff), John Clarke (An Riocht), Karl Oakes (Downpatrick), E McCartan (Burren), & Aidan Fegan (Annaclone).

Sligo IT - P Durkin; A Higgins, E McGee, N McGee; P Kelly 0-1, S Grimes, K Cassidy 0-1; B Boyle, M Moyles 0-1; C Toye , P Finlay 0-5, P Harte; D Warde 1-0, N Joyce 0-1, A O'Malley 0-1. Subs – A Moran for Boyle

Queens - W McSorley; M Bogue, D McCartan, C Rafferty; P O'Hea, E Devine, S Kelly; M McGrath, D Clerkin 0-1; A Carr, J Clarke, K Oaks 0-1; E McCartan, BJ Padden 1-0, A Fagan 0-5. Subs - G Donaghy for Oaks, C Dunne for Carr, C Brady for Bogue.

Referee – B White (Wexford)

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