Ulster club SFC: Cross' into another final

November 15, 2015

Kilcoo's Aidan Branagan with Crossmaglen Rangers' Rico Kelly.
©INPHO/Presseye/William Cherry.

Crossmaglen (Armagh) 0-12

Kilcoo (Down) 0-8

Crossmaglen are back in the Ulster club football final for the first time since 2012 after seeing off 14-man Kilcoo before a bumper crowd of 9,591 at Pairc Esler.

After an evenly-contested first half, the Armagh champions reeled off five unanswered points in the third quarter to put the game beyond their Down counterparts' reach. Jamie Clarke made a late appearance off the bench for Cross' following his extended break in the US, and Kilcoo's misery was compounded by the 53rd dismissal of substitute Dominic McEvoy on a second yellow card.

Darragh O'Hanlon's free gave Kilcoo an early lead, but despite hitting nine first half wides, Cross' went into the break level (0-3 apiece) following points from Paul Hughes and a Tony Kernan free in stoppage-time.

The 10-time Ulster champions stamped their authority on proceedings when scoring five points without reply on the restart per Oisin O'Neill, Kyle Carragher, Aaron Kernan and Tony Kernan.

O'Hanlon registered Kilcoo's first point in 27 minutes to halve the deficit, 0-4 to 0-8, but they couldn't get any closer, despite Cross' losing both Aidan Rushe and Stephen Kernan to late black cards.

Scotstown will provide the final opposition for the charges of Oisin McConville and John McEntee on November 29 at a venue to be decided.

Crossmaglen - P Hearty; P Hughes (0-1), A Rushe, P McKeown; A Kernan (0-3, 2f), M Aherne, J Morgan; J Hanratty, A Cunningham; M McNamee, S Kernan, T Kernan (0-3f); O O'Neill (0-1), R Kelly (0-1), K Carragher (0-3). Subs: K Brennan for O O'Neill, J Murtagh for A Cunningham, J Clarke for M McNamee, S Finnegan for A Rushe (BC), C Cumiskey for K Carragher.

Kilcoo - S Kane; N Branagan, Aidan Branagan, D Branagan; Aaron Branagan, D O'Hanlon (0-5, 4f), R Johnston (0-1); F McGreevy, J McClean; A Morgan, P Devlin, D Ward; J Johnston (0-1f), P Greenan, C Laverty. Subs: M Devlin (0-1) for P Devlin, D McEvoy for F McGreevy, S O'Hanlon for J McClean, Gerard McEvoy for D Ward, Gary McEvoy for A Morgan.

Referee - N Mooney.


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