Cormac Leonard Armagh Senior Football Championship final: Crossmaglen Rangers 0-16 Clann Eireann 2-12
CONOR Turbitt carried the Gerry Fagan Cup, named after the last Clann Eireann captain to lift it 58 years previously, into the winners’ dressingroom and his team-mates roared with delight.
Meanwhile, behind the door across the tunnel there was stunned silence. Crossmaglen were in charge of this final at one stage but they could not kill off the plucky Lurgan men and goals from Ruairi McDonald and Jack Conlan and eight points from the excellent Turbitt saw the underdogs claim a sensational victory at the death.
Yes, Clann Eireann needed a little luck and it came when Conlan’s long ball bounced in the Crossmaglen square and somehow found its way into the net via the post but no-one could say they nicked their victory in yesterday’s superb final.
They were the better team in the first half but their finishing let them down and although Cross bossed the third quarter and kicked six points to their one, Clann Eireann’s grandstand finish produced a win no-one could argue with.
“This means everything to us,” said delighted Clann Eireann manager Tommy Coleman.
“A famine has ended. 15-20 years ago a programme was set out and people in the club did all the hard yards with it. We’ve come in the last couple of years and instilled a bit of belief in these young lads and the experienced lads who are there.
“We told them that if we were there with 10 minutes to go we were going to win and we did.”
Spare a thought for Cross. They had one hand on the cup until Clann Eireann ripped it out of their hands and forced them to deal with final defeat for the second year in-a-row.
“We worked extremely hard this past 14 months,” said Aaron Kernan.
“After what happened in the county final last year we put a lot of stuff in place to rectify it and we felt we were in a good place. We were motoring well really well and you could see that what we had practised at training and what we had planned was coming off.
“Unfortunately we maybe tried to force a few goal chances in the first half and didn’t get anything out of it. There were a few patches were we were scoring but we weren’t clinical enough – we never put the game out of sight.
“In fairness to Clann Eireann, they were hungry and they took their chances whenever they came.”
The underdogs needed to start well and they did see plenty of the ball early on but were wasteful up front. Route one tactics came to nothing and, although their defence prevented Cross from fully capitalising, two points from Callum Cumiskey and another from Rian O’Neill sent them three points ahead.
At the other end, Adam Kelly’s wide brought Clann Eireann’s tally to six and it took a 45 from Turbitt – straight over the black spot – to get them up-and-running just before the water break.
They were quickly back on terms with two more from Turbitt when play resumed and Tiernan Kelly signalled that they had come for war with a bone-shuddering hit on Caolan Finnegan, the youngest member of a Cross full-forward line that was kept on a short leash by the physicality of their markers.
Cian McConville and Kelly swapped frees before Turbitt edged Clann Eireann ahead for the first time after 26 minutes of a scrappy first half. Rian O’Neill, misfiring by his own standards, missed two frees but did find the target to leave it 5-5 at the interval.
The third quarter was all Cross. The men in black and amber moved slickly through the gears playing some vintage football that produced six points including two from Dara O’Callaghan and an excellent finish from substitute Thomas Og Duffy after the best move of the game up to that point.
Meanwhile, it seemed Clann Eireann had lost their way. They needed a steadying influence but none could be found with Turbitt double-marked up front.
His free left five in it at a water break which Cross, in hindsight, could have done without.
Momentum turned spectacularly after it. Turbitt, Conlan and Ryan Henderson all landed points and, although James Morgan temporarily stopped the rot, Tony Kernan shot wide as Cross failed to kill off their neversaydie opponents.
The turning point game when veteran Henderson (in his 20th year at senior level) grabbed a kick-out on the left wing and the ball was worked to sub Ruairi McDonald. Racing through, he weighed up his options and then smashed a shot into the roof of the Rangers net and suddenly it was level at 1-9 to 0-12.
Now it was Crossmaglen’s turn to rally. Rian O’Neill and Kelly swapped scores but then Rian and brother Oisin struck to leave Cross 0-15 to 1-10 ahead with time running out.
There was a minute left when Conlan took the ball on the left and sent it high and long towards Kelly who’d been switched to full-forward. It sailed over him and two Cross defenders and goalkeeper Tiarnan McConville, rooted to the spot, could only watch as it clipped his left post and nestled into the net behind his right.
Spectators must have thought ‘replay’ when Rian O’Neill equalised but Clann Eireann were having none of that. Turbitt turned Caolan Dillon and split the posts at the town end and his free deep into injury-time put two between the teams. There was still time for a ‘Hail Mary’ punt from Cross but Sean McCarthy – excellent in defence alongside Shea Heffron and Barry McCambridge – leapt to grab it and the final whistle blew as he landed, clutching the ball.
He was mobbed by joyous team-mates and fans when he got back to his feet.
Crossmaglen: T McConville; P Stuttard, C Dillon, P Hughes; A Kernan, J Morgan (0-1), T O’Callaghan; S Morris, R O’Neill (0-5, 0-3 frees); C Cumiskey (0-2), O O’Neill (0-2), T Kernan (0-1); D O’Callaghan (0-2), C McConville (0-1), C Finnegan
Subs: T Og Duffy (0-1) for O’Callaghan (HT)
Blood sub: O Kieran for Finnegan (20-23)
Clann Eireann: E Mulholland, C O’Carroll, B McCambridge, D Leathem; S McCarthy, S Heffron, A Kelly; C Bell, T Kelly (0-2, 0-1 free); D Magee, R Henderson (0-1), C McConville; D McCarthy, C Turbitt (0-8, 0-4 frees, 0-1 45, 0-1 mark), A McConville
Subs: J Conlon (1-1) for A McConville (40), R McDonald (1-0) for Bell (40), P McKenna for Magee (53)
Referee: O Hearty (Belleek)
