Kilcoo (Down) 2-8
Ballyboden St Enda’s (Dublin) 0-11

Kilcoo will face Corofin in the All-Ireland club senior football championship final after sending Ballyboden St Enda’s crashing out of the competition at Kingspan Breffni this afternoon.

Goals from Ryan Johnston and Daryl Branagan proved crucial for the Down champions as they tore up the script on the 2016 champions and moved into their first decider in the process.

Eight points between the two Basquel brothers, Ryan and Colm, wouldn’t be enough for Ballyboden as they were made rue black cards for sub Aran Waters and Dublin star Michael Darragh Macauley, chasing the game into its dying stages and coming up two short in the end.

Having secured their first ever Ulster title early last month, the Magpies arguably rose to even greater heights here in stopping a capital juggernaut which had lost just one competitive outing during 2019.

Paul Delvin opened their account in the early minutes off the back of some fine work from Conor Laverty before 'Boden edged in front with a Ryan Basquel free being backed up by Conal Keaney inside.

Ryan McEvoy (free) squared the sides prior to Keaney putting Basquel through for his first from play. Devlin cancelled that out to level matters again and then came the breakthrough in the 21st minute, which saw a brilliant flick from Laverty put possession into Aidan Branagan’s path and the midfielder sent Johnston through to apply the finish for all three points.

Basquel and Devlin cancelled each other out with frees ahead of Aaron Morgan sailing Kilcoo into a four-point lead with half-time approaching.

Anthony Rainbow’s trailing side finished out the half strong with a pair of Basquel frees and a neat point from Kieran Kennedy, leaving it at 1-5 to 0-6 when the sides went in.

Kilcoo's Daryl Branagan and Colm Basquel of Ballyboden St Enda's

Kennedy narrowed the margin to one ahead of Rainbow sending on Aran Waters and Tom Hayes to shore things up early in the restart, but they’d soon lose Waters to a black card on 39 minutes.

Five minutes later and the ball was in Ballyboden’s net after Dylan Ward saw his fisted effort of a point come back off the post and land perfectly to Daryl Branagan, who hammered in a cool finish to leave the Mourne men with one foot in the final.

The Basquel brothers posted frees in response at the other end and Warren Egan came off the bench to help erase the damage from a second goal concession for the capital men.

However, Kilcoo had plenty left in the tank as Shealan Johnston raised a settling white flag prior to McEvoy rifling over a superb point in injury-time to seal the deal.

It means Mickey Moran’s charges now look forward to an All-Ireland final date against three-in-a-row chasing Corofin on January 19th at Croke Park.

Kilcoo - M McCourt; N Branagan, Aaron Branagan, R McEvoy (0-3, 2f); D Branagan (1-0), Aidan Branagan, Niall McEvoy; Aaron Morgan (0-1), D Ward; R Johnston, E Branagan, J Johnston (1-0); C Laverty, P Devlin (0-3, 2f), S Johnston (0-1). Subs: M Rooney for Aaron Morgan, J Clarke for D Branagan (BC), F McGreevy for D Ward, Anthony Morgan for C Laverty (BC), P Greennan for R McEvoy (BC).

Ballyboden St Enda’s - D Gogan; B Dwan, S Clayton, C Flaherty; K Kennedy (0-1), R McDaid, B Bobbett; MD Macauley, D O’Mahoney; D O’Reilly, C Basquel (0-3f), A Flood; R McGarry, R Basquel (0-5, 4f), C Keaney (0-1). Subs: A Waters for B Bobbett, T Hayes for R McGarry, D Nelson for A Waters (BC), W Egan (0-1) for A Flood, J Holland for M D Macauley (BC), S O Maidin for D O’Reilly.

Referee - D O’Mahoney.

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