Ramor United 3-9
Lavey 1-11

Ramor United held off a late revival from Lavey tonight at Kingspan Breffni to advance back into the semi-finals of senior championship.

In the wet and windy conditions, Micheál McDermott's men managed goals in either half through key front men Adrian Cole and Jack Brady and finished up with 10 individual scorers over the hour, including all of their starting forwards.

Brady's rebounded goal in the 41st minute had led to Lavey falling 10 points behind at one stage but, to their credit, they never threw the towel in and that was illustrated by seven unanswered points during final quarter of an hour.

That certainly kept the heat on the Virginia men right up until the hour mark when substitute Conor Farrelly fired home their third goal, ensuring a meeting with either Castlerahan or Cootehill in the last four later this month.

Jack Brady had the champions up and running inside the opening minute with a fine point but they soon lost their wing-back Eoin Somerville to a black card from referee Conor Dourneen, which saw an early introduction for Kevin Mulvany.

Karl Duke bore through the Ramor defence for Lavey's first point of the night on eight minutes and they were in the ascendancy once Chris Conroy, who was moved back to guard James Bradley, steamed forward and split the posts on 11 minutes.

Stephen Monaghan squared things for Ramor with the help of the post and a Conor Bradley free had them back in front before they struck their first hammer blow in the 22nd minute.

Some excellent work by the aforementioned Bradley in the left corner-forward position saw him racing past his marker along the end line and fisting across to an unmarked Cole, who sent the ball flying into the Lavey net via his fist.

Down by five, wasteful Lavey registered their sixth wide of the night in their next attack and wouldn't add another accurate score for the remainder of the half, as Stephen Jordan screwed a goal chance the wrong side of Aoghan Cahill's post three minutes before the break.

Jack Brady would also have an opportunity at the net brilliantly parried by Conor Martin before his colleague in attack Cathal Maguire looped over a point, closing the half at 1-4 to 0-2.

Two Shane Tierney frees looked to drag the New Inns men back into contention in the early stages of the second-half, but they were wiped out by one from James Brady and Maguire's second.

Martin looked to have come up trumps again for the game chasers when he denied Jack Brady once more but this time Ramor's joint captain was able to stick in the rebound, despite Conroy's best efforts of a goal line clearance.

James Bradley and sub Jack Doyle bumped the Ramor advantage up to 10 by the 43rd minute, but just as they're opponents from up the N3 looked done for no fewer than seven unanswered scores would fly over the Ramor crossbar in the space of 13 minutes.

Ray Cullivan certainly won his fair share of battles around the centre in that period, as Tierney hit four consecutive points from frees to leave the scoreboard reading 2-8 to 0-8 with 11 minutes left on the clock.

Darren Jordan closed the gap to five on 51 minutes as James McEnroe received a red card after picking up a black on top of a yellow. However, the numerical advantage wouldn't last long for Kevin McDonnell's side as Cullivan got his marching orders for a challenge that was deemed to high by Ballinagh whistler Dourneen.

Lavey still stuck to their guns though and registered two more frees - the first of them a real gem which was hooked in perfectly by Gerry Smith, making it 2-8 to 0-11 with five minutes left in normal time.

With the rain now pouring down in every sense for Ramor, a Mulvany free helped weather the storm for them big time and they could really breathe a sigh of relief once sub Farrelly banged home their third goal despite Paul Gilcreest cancelling it out deep in injury-time.

Ramor United: Aoghan Cahill; Micheál Smart, Mark Magee, Pauric O'Connell; Adam O'Connell, Damien Barkey, Eoin Somerville; Stephen Monaghan (0-1), James McEnroe; Cathal Maguire (0-2), James Bradley (0-1), Conor Bradley (0-1, 1f); James Brady (0-1), Adrian Cole (1-0), Jack Brady (1-1). Subs: Kevin Mulvany (0-1, 1f) for E Somerville (6mins, BC), Jack Doyle (0-1) for C Bradley (34), Conor Farrelly (1-0) for Jack Brady (45, BC), Anton O'Reilly for S Monaghan (48).

Lavey: Conor Martin; Joey Jordan, Fergal Smith, Dean Rutherford; Stephen Jordan, Danny Cusack, Gerry Smith (0-2, 2f); Ray Cullivan, Paul Gilcreest (1-0); Darren Jordan (0-1), Chris Conroy (0-1), Darragh Conaty; Shane Tierney (0-6, 5f), Karl Duke (0-1), Oliver Smith. Subs: Darren Monaghan for D Rutherford (15mins), Finbar Jordan for O Smith (37).

Ref: Conor Dourneen (Ballinagh)

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