St. Michael's were denied a win in their opening MacRory Cup group game by an injury time Abbey CBS free.

St. Michael's looked to be on their way to the victory after late points from Bartec Szubert and Colm Jones edged them a point ahead but a debatable free at the end saw Dom Corrigan's charges having to settle for a point.

"We would have liked to have won but a draw was a good enough result and the first game is all about the performance and we got that today," said Corrigan.

The Enniskillen school played with the breeze in the first half but they were slow out of the blocks as the Abbey built up a 0-04 to 0-01 advantage.

However, a St. Michael's penalty which was converted by Lee Brennan got the Fermanagh side going and with Brennan (2) and Peter Reynolds landing points they went in leading 1-04 to 0-05 at the interval.

The Newry outfit though were back on level terms within minutes of the restart as they quickly banged over two points. But St. Michael's responded with points coming from Brennan and Reynolds to put them two up again.

An Abbey penalty saw the Down school claim a one point lead with two minutes to go but back again came St. Michael's with those scores from Szubert and Jones.

However, they had to settle for a share of the spoils as the Abbey converted a free at the death.

Next up for St. Michael's is a meeting with St. Patrick's Armagh on Monday at 4pm in Donaghmore.