All-Ireland Club Football Championship Semi-final/ Crossmaglen 1-11 St Brigid's 0-11: The old adage that says goals win matches was borne out when Crossmaglen squeezed into the St Patrick's Day All-Ireland club football championship final by beating Roscommon's St Brigid's at Cusack Park yesterday.
Some 5,600 witnessed the Armagh specialists reach their first final since winning the competition in 2000.
Ultimately it all boiled down to a parried goal in the ninth minute.
Michael McNamee, the alert Crossmaglen right corner forward, had just opened the scoring from the throw-in with a point, which was followed by another from Oisín McConville. And so Crossmaglen led by two points to one when what would prove the decisive score arrived in the ninth minute.
John Hanratty initiated the move by finding McConville with a pinpoint pass. The wily McConville spotted McNamee ready to make his run and, in a twinkling, floated a fisted pass into McNamee's path. The task of parrying to the net was an easy one.
It proved a crucial score that St Brigid's tried with energy and skill to cancel out for the rest of a hectic, end-to-end match.
The St Brigid's contingent will rue the fact their defence was caught cold for this score - James Martin's kick-out following McConville's point having been turned over.
Other factors fell into place for Crossmaglen. They were more experienced and streetwise when going forward to take scores. They were also less wasteful than their opponents, who shot a plethora of wides when they badly needed points.
Crossmaglen forwards of the calibre of McConville and Hanratty were afforded too much time by the St Brigid's backs, whereas the St Brigid's forwards, despite the heroics of John Tiernan and Frankie Dolan, were met by a staunch and hard-tackling Crossmaglen defence.
Called into that Crossmaglen defence was Francie Bellew, his role, in tandem with Tony McEntee, to hoover up long ball.
The teenage midfielder David McKenna had a splendid game for Crossmaglen, showing maturity and vision and fitting the scenario sketched by the manager, Donal Murtagh: "The defensive spine of our team is provided by the old heads and the pace is supplied by the younger players coming into the side."
Murtagh had the added satisfaction of seeing his nephew John Murtagh, another teenager, responding cleverly to his second-half introduction, scoring two glorious points and creating the opening for a third.
Tiernan was the chief orchestrator of the St Brigid's attacks in the first half. It was when using the short-passing game that they caused the winners' defence most trouble. It was clear, particularly in the closing stages, the high ball was never going to work against Bellew and McEntee.
"We were prepared for a fight and we certainly got one," said Murtagh in summing up.
The St Brigid's manager, Anthony Cunningham, felt his team had played better than this in the championship but conceded Crossmaglen, who led 1-5 to 0-7 at half-time, were cuter in key areas yesterday.
The inevitable sharp-shooting contest between Oisín McConville and the brilliant Dolan finished with Dolan scoring seven points to McConville's five.
CROSSMAGLEN: P Hearty; F Bellew, T McEntee, S McNamee; A Kernan, J Donaldson, B McKeown; D McKenna (0-1), S Clarke; M Ahern, S McEntee, S Kernan; M McNamee (1-1), J Hanratty (0-2), O McConville (0-5, three frees). Subs: J Murtagh (0-2)for M McNamee, S Finnegan for McKeown.
ST BRIGID'S: J Martin; E Ruane, P Kilcommons, R Kelly; N Grehan, G Ahern, D O'Connor (0-1); M O'Carroll, K Mannion (0-2); J Tiernan (0-1), F Dolan (0-7, four frees), B O'Brien; S Kilbride, D O'Connor, D Blain (0-1). Subs: E Mannion for Kilcommons, I Kilbride for O'Brien, D Kelleher for Blain.
Referee: E Murtagh(Longford).
