Slaughtneil defeat St John's to retain Ulster title

Slaughtneil captain Mark McGuigan lifts the Four Seasons Cup

Slaughtneil retained their grip on the Ulster club hurling title with an impressive 0-23 to 0-10 win over St John's at the Athletic Grounds on Saturday.

The defending champions made it six provincial crowns in nine editions of the competition with a dominant display, dictating terms and then pulling away in the second period.

Cormac O'Doherty top-scored with 10 points - nine from frees - but played much deeper and much of the victory was built on a solid defensive display, limiting the Johnnies to just three scores from play.

Slaughtneil will now move on to an All-Ireland's semi-final on Saturday, 20 December against Loughrea from Galway.

"We probably would have liked to have more free-flowing hurling about us, but we did what we had to do - deal with the threat of St John's and then try to play a bit, which panned out in the last 10 minutes," Slaughtneil manager Paul McCormack said afterwards.

"Our tackling, fronting up and match-ups, I think we got them right. They have a lot of threats and we did a lot of work on those.

"The men really responded to that challenge so I'm delighted with that. Our defenders were exceptional.

"It was a long road from Newbridge [last year's All-Ireland semi-final defeat by Sarsfield's] to now but the lads have responded well and are hungry for more - a bunch of hurlers from Derry, but good hurlers."

Slaughtneil take a grip in the opening half

Chrissy McKaigue is challenged by Ryan McNulty

Oisin MacManus gave the Belfast side an early lead from a free, but he was the sole source of scores for St John's in the opening half with five - the last of those the first from play.

That came in the 28th minute, an indication of how hard they were being made to work for the scores with Slaughtneil shutting down avenues with Fionn McEldowney doing a good job of bottling up Conor Johnston as they hassled and harried, forcing turnovers.

It wasn't exactly a free-flowing opening half but Slaughtneil certainly got the better of it as after they got off the mark through Shea Cassidy's free, they opened a gap with Se McGuigan, Cormac O'Doherty and Cassidy from play all on the board.

The Derry side had six scorers in the opening period, a nod to their spread of attacking threats, but despite their superiority, eight wides in the opening period ensured their lead was just four at the interval, 0-9 to 0-5.

Shea Cassidy and MacManus traded early frees in the second period, but for Slaughtneil, the message would have been to keep doing what they had been doing in the opening period.

Cathal O Mianain finished a trademark flowing move before the only person not called MacManus scored for St John's as Sean Wilson clipped over in the 39th minute.

It failed to ignite their charge as Slaughtneil seemed to up it another gear with O'Doherty continuing to knock over the frees as they forced St John's into fouls, while at the other end, they swallowed up everything the Antrim champions had to offer.

Two Chrissy McKaigue scores raised the roof as the margin was out to 10 with six to play and the issue now put beyond doubt.

To compound matters, St John's lost Oisin Donnelly to a straight red card in stoppage time when leading with the elbow on Cathal O'Mianain, but it made no difference to the outcome with Slaughtneil long out of sight and into an All-Ireland semi-final.

Slaughtneil: O O'Doherty; F McEldowney, P McNeill, C McAllister; R O Mianain, M McGrath, Shane McGuigan (0-1); C O Mianain (0-1), C O'Doherty (0-10, 9f); M McGuigan, Se McGuigan (0-2), E Cassidy (0-1); B Rogers (0-2), C McKaigue (0-2), S Cassidy (0-3, 2f).

Subs: J McGuigan for S Cassidy (40), P McCullagh for E Cassidy (52), C Coyle for M McGrath (56), G Bradley for Se McGuigan (58), P Burke (0-1) for C McKaigue (60)

St John's: D Nugent; R McNulty, Ciaran Johnston, J Bohill; C Morgan, P McCallin, E McGurk; S Wilson (0-1), A Bradley; O Donnelly, Conor Johnston, C Bohill; D Carson, S Shannon, O MacManus (0-9, 7f).

Subs: M Bradley for A Bradley (45), C Hanna for P McCallin (57), M Dudley for D Carson (60)

Referee: P Owens (Down)