Clonakilty Community College denied St. Malachy's, Castlewellan a third successive All-Ireland Vocational Schools SFC 'A' title with a fine display at Croke Park yesterday.

Clonakility CC 0-11
St. Malachy's, Castlewellan 0-8

Fielding several of the Cork side that recently captured the All-Ireland Vocational Schools inter-county crown, the West Cork outfit led by 0-6 to 0-3 at the interval, having opened up an early four-point lead with three scores from county under 21 Rory O'Sullivan.

The reigning champions eventually settled with Conor Doyle, Darragh O'Hanlon and Nathan Smith finding the target, but they would have been further behind at the break had goalkeeper Christopher Turley not denied the rampaging O'Sullivan with a brilliant save.

The Down school enjoyed their most productive period immediately after the restart when three O'Hanlon points brought them back into contention before Martin Devlin levelled proceedings.

But Clonakilty continued to look threatening and Turley had to produce two more saves from Colin Smith and Barry O'Mahony to keep Castlewellan in the game. However, the Cork school's persistence eventually paid off when late scores from Smtih, James Davis and Killian Cullinane settled the issue.

Scorers - Clonakilty: R O'Sullivan 0-3, C Smith, K Cullinane (2f) 0-2 each, C Ryan, T Clancy ('45), J Davis, B O'Mahony 0-1 each. Castlewellan: D O'Hanlon 0-4 (1f), M Devlin 0-2, C Doyle, N Smith 0-1 each.

Clonakilty: C O'Callaghan; C Ryan, JM O'Callaghan, K Cormican; J Ryan, T Clancy, J Davis; R O'Sullivan, S Sheehy; G Barry, B O'Mahony, G Booking; J Leahy, C Smith, K Cullinane. Subs: G O'Brien for Leahy, J Hayes for Booking.

Castlewellan: C Turley; A Donnan, C McCusker, M Grant; S O'Hanlon, C McClean, C Cunningham; C Maginn, R Laughlin; C Doyle, D O'Hanlon, N Smyth; O McClean, P McKenney, M Devlin. Subs: S Tierney for Doyle. Tweet

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