ULSTER SFC FINAL Crossmaglen 2-9 Naomh Conaill 0-10:HOLD OUT a quiver full of clichés. Choose one. Place it in your bow. And fire away. Crossmaglen are Crossmaglen. Solid. Eternal. Immutable.
They won their eighth Ulster title in Cavan yesterday defeating Naomh Conaill with a display decorated by all the features we have come to expect from the men in black and amber.
The game finished with Naomh Conaill increasingly bewildered, throwing everything including the kitchen sink at Cross’ who just thrive on such circumstances and conditions. The Armagh men took it all, squeezed the life out of their opponents like a python and added a couple of points of their own toward the end.
Some of the old faces from the side that won 13 county titles on the trot have moved onwards or to the bench but the style remains the same and the replacements are just as potent.
Youngsters like Jamie Clarke and Michael McNamee punched their weight yesterday but when the going got tough there were men like Francie Bellew and John McEntee to be summoned from the bench.
Clarke opened the scoring with an early point for Cross but Naomh Conaill played the better football during the first half. Leo McLoone, a lively presence, took a fine score to open trading for the Donegal men and the impeccable Dermot Molloy added to that from a free.
It’s a truism by now about Crossmaglen that the only way to beat them is to get on top of them them early on, establish a lead and force them out of themselves. As such when Naomh Conaill review yesterday’s first half they will see themselves as slightly unlucky.
Molloy had traded frees with Oisín McConville to leave Naomh Conaill a point ahead when Cross’ taught their opponents the most significant lesson of the day. Nothing worse than a sucker punch.
Leon Thompson, the bantam weight corner forward, thumped a ball at the Cross goal. It was a wonderful chance and the shot came off Paul Hearty’s body without the unsighted goalie being too aware of it. Cross’ took possession, ran the ball the length of the field where Michael McNamee dinked a wonderful pass to Clarke who finished in style. Instead of being four behind, Cross were two points up.
At this point the Glenties men should have lain down and died but Cross’ down through the years have seldom cut loose on prey.
So Naomh Conaill kept plugging away and by the 23rd minute they were leading again, albeit by just a point.
What was interesting at this point was the response from the Crossmaglen bench. Their last point of the half was scored by Michael McNamee a lively presence at corner forward. His point put Cross back on level terms but Dara Gallagher restored the one -point margin almost immediately. For McNamee however the score was his last parting action. He was withdrawn, or sacrificed as Tony McEntee put it afterwards and Francie Bellew brought in.
Bellew started as a sweeper in front of his full back and thereafter cruised to wherever he felt he was needed. Poor Naomh Conaill didn’t score for another 20 minutes by which time it was all too late.
Donegal men commented afterward that at half-time and leading by a point they knew it wasn’t a case of “job done”. There was some understatement in that. Cross’ went to the break in a state of high alarm at having conceded seven scores. Then early in the second half they received one of those jolts which teams occasionally need when Tony Kernan (who had minutes previously levelled the score) took a second yellow, this time for a high challenge on Leo McLoone.
Reduced to 14 men on a freezing cold afternoon in Cavan not long before Christmas? That’s the sort of challenge Cross’ dream of. As with the sucker punch in the first half they hit back now while their opponents were most happy and vulnerable. Jamie Clarke, scorer of the first goal, provided a pass on a plate for Oisín McConville whose 200 years or so of experience meant he was never going to miss.
Cross were three points up. Nobody comes back and takes a three-point second-half lead away from Crossmaglen in Ulster football. Clarke and McConville continued to torment the Naomh Conaill defence. For the Donegal men nothing worked. They couldn’t ride the tackles or find the spaces.
“I’d just like to say,” said Cross captain Paul McKeown, accepting the familiar silverware after the final whistle, “It’s nice to be back.”
Were they ever away?
CROSSMAGLEN RANGER: P Hearty; P McKeown, P Kernan, KJ Morgan; A Kernan (0-1 free), D O'Callaghan, S Finnegan; J Hanratty, D McKenna; J Clarke (1-2), S Kernan, F Hanratty; T Kernan (0-1), M McNamee (0-1), O McConville (1-5, 0-4 frees). Subs: F Bellew for M McNamee (27 mins), A Cunningham for S Kernan (39 mins), M Aherne for S Finnegan (39 mins), K Carragher for F Hanratty (50 mins), J McEntee for D McKenna (54 mins).
NAOMH CONAILL: S McGrath; T Donoghue, J Bonner C Boyle, M Boyle; A Thompson (c) E Wade, M Regan; J McLoone, B McDyre (0-2); L McCloone (0-1), D Gallagher (0-3, 0-2 frees); J O'Malley, D Molloy (0-4, frees), L Thompson. Subs: S Corcoran for L Thompson (50 mins), J McKenna for J O Malley (57 mins).
Referee: J McQuillan(Cavan).
