Cavan Senior Football Championship final: Crosserlough 0-11 Gowna 1-6
Crosserlough departed Hugh O’Reilly Park, Cootehill with a sweet taste in their mouth after making good their second bite of the cherry to reach the Cavan SFC final.
In a replay which turned out to be a real war of attrition in testing conditions, the ‘lough won most of the battles against a Gowna side which failed to consolidate a 1-2 to 0-3 lead following Cian Bannon’s fisted goal in the 10th minute.
Crosserlough boss Darragh McCarthy admitted that the concession of the goal was a setback but he had every faith in his full-back line to shore things up thereafter:
“The goal was a shock to the system at the time but the lads at the back didn’t panic,” the Dublin-born, Ballinagh clubman explained.
“Our full-back Patrick O’Reilly is only 20 but he’s a MacRory Cup winner with St Pat’s (Cavan) and was a county minor too so he’s a proven bit of stuff and I knew he’d get to grips with Bannon.
“Overall, the fact that our backs as a unit didn’t reach for the panic button after their early goal meant a lot to the team and to our chances of overturning their lead.”
Bannon’s belter came just seven minutes after a similar chance saw him palm the ball over, instead of under, the bar when Shane Hartin’s shot dropped short.
On an already sodden pitch further greased by constant rainfall, neither side managed to dictate matters for anything more than fleeting minutes with the football laced with perspiration rather than inspiration.
Like the drawn game, this was an affair that was always destined to go down to the wire with no more than three points ever separating the combatants.
The pattern of the game was established from the get-go with the sides tied at 0-2 apiece by the 9th minute before Bannon jumped highest on the edge of the small square to meet Conor Brady’s long, high, teasing delivery.
Strapping full-forward Bannon continued to show up well in the first half as Gowna employed route one football in the trying conditions but, ominously, the Longford-border side found it difficult to engineer back-to-back scores which would have given them some real momentum.
Crosserlough seemed to sense the growing frustration among their opponents in that regard and as the game wore on they began to show an extra spring in their step on a sod with all the bounce of a wet lump of turf.
Crosserlough had their travails too in the final third of the pitch. They struggled to add a bit of craft to complement their graft and when Oisín Pierson landed arguably the point of the game in the 17th minute, Crosserlough found themselves trailing by three points, 0-4 to 1-4, for the first time in the game.
Slowly but surely, Crosserlough found their bearings going forward with centre-forward Pierce Smith acting as playmaker-in-chief to number nine Paul McEvoy’s ball-winning exploits.
For all their increased possession, Crosserlough’s shooting threatened to hamstring their push for the spoils.
They would notch seven wides in total in the first half and it wasn’t until the 29th minute that they drew level, 0-7 to 1-4, when McEvoy split the posts.
The second half was a real war of attrition with Crosserlough battening down the hatches as they sought to hold onto their 0-8 to 1-4 interval lead.
“We learned a little bit from the first game which helped us in particular in the second half. We stayed composed on the ball and pressed them high up the field when they had it. They never looked like getting in for a second goal.”
Crosserlough scorers: Pierce Smith (0-6, five frees); Patrick Lynch (0-2) Paul McEvoy (0-1); Mark Stewart (0-1); Conor Rehill (0-1).
Gowna scorers: Cian Bannon (1-1); Cian Madden (0-3, three frees); Oisín Pierson (0-1); Conor Brady (0-1).
