Laragh United 2-16
Belturbet 1-9

Laragh United delivered an impressive display at Kingspan Breffni this afternoon to down Belturbet and claim their first intermediate championship title in 25 years.

First-half goals from Pauric O’Reilly and Liam McKenna helped the Stradone men cruise in this lop-sided decider as they went in at break up by double figures, 2-8 to 0-4.

Jody Devine’s fired-up side led by 0-7 to 0-3 when O’Reilly fired in their first goal on 22 minutes and when McKenna lashed home a second two minutes later it left Belturbet with a mountain to climb.

The Rories wouldn’t scale it either, as their ruthless counterparts stretched their lead out to 13 before they managed a consolation goal in the seventh minute of injury-time.

Cormac Donohoe opened the town side’s account three minutes into this final but it was Laragh that called the shots thereafter, with McKenna (2), Paul Smith and O’Reilly (2) steering them 0-5 to 0-2 in front after 14 minutes.

Enda Henry pulled back a Belturbet free that was met with a Fergal O’Rourke ‘45’ prior to a well-taken goal by O’Reilly putting the first bit of real daylight between the teams with 22 minutes on the clock.

Two minutes later and Laragh had one hand on the Tommy Gilroy Cup as McKenna steered a second major past Cian Vaughan in the Belturbet goal.

Conall McGinley and Sean Tierney traded points to close the half at a 10-point margin and a brace of Henry frees after the restart would be about as good as it got for Padraig Dolan’s chasing charges.

Ian Leddy and ‘Man of the Match’ Jack McKenna sailed over points to outweigh one from Conor Vaughan at the other end and more overs from Ruairi Power and Jason Walsh saw the Laragh lead restored to ten.

Oisin Carolan (2) came off the bench to raise the winners’ tally up to 2-15 prior to another from Walsh in injury-time rounding off a superb display by the men from PJ Duke Park as they made a splendid return to the senior ranks.

Laragh United: Fergal O’Rourke; Stephen Cooney, Fergal McKenna, Cian Carolan; Ian Leddy, Colm McKenna, Lee Reilly; Eoin Donoghue, Shane O’Rourke; Sean Tierney, Paul Smith, Jack McKenna; Liam McKenna, Patrick Rudden, Pauric O’Reilly. Subs: Ruairi Power for S Tierney (40mins), Oisin Carolan for P O'Reilly (43), Barry Davis for Cooney (47), Jason Walsh for Donoghue (48), Cian O'Rourke for L McKenna (56). Kieran O'Donoghue for Rudden (59).

Belturbet: Cian Vaughan; Luke Smith, Mark Lawlor, John Cahill; Shane Fitzpatrick, Kevin McConnell, Fionan O’Reilly; Damien O’Reilly, Mark Teevan; Enda Henry, Cormac Donohoe, Niall Lawlor; Conor Vaughan, Sean Og Lawlor, Conal McGinley. Subs: Eoin McGuigan for Mark Lawlor (23mins), Peter Shannon for Luke Smith (23), Brendan Fitzpatrick for Teevan (HT), Donal McDonald for McGinley (37), Jack O'Callaghan for N Lawlor  (55), Jason O'Reilly for Vaughan (60).

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