Ulster Club SFC final: Cross put Kilcoo to the sword

CROSSMAGLEN 3-9
KILCOO 1-9

A scintillating opening quarter display laid the foundations for Crossmaglen as they captured a 10th Ulster Club SFC title at the expense of Kilcoo in the Athletic Grounds yesterday.

Oisin McConville converted a second minute penalty and Aaron Kernan raised a second green flag shortly after to leave the reigning champions 2-6 to 0-1 up after just 18 minutes of play.

Kilcoo opened their account through a Paul Devlin free in the 6th minute and they trailed by 0-3 to 2-6 at the interval.

The second half belonged to the men from the Mourne County and they hit 1-4 without reply early on to give them hope of a Lazarus-like comeback.

Anthony Devlin netted the goal in the 41st minute and Crossmaglen suffered a set-back when substitute Michael McNamee received a straight red-card in the 45th minute.

The Tony McEntee/Gareth O'Neill managed side drew on their vast experience to weather the storm and they finished in style with substitute Kyle Brennan striking for their third goal on the hour mark.

The winners were reduced to 13 men a minute earlier when Jamie Clarke picked up a second yellow card.

Crossmaglen - P Hearty; P Hughes, P Kernan, P McKeown; A Kernan (1-1), J Morgan, M Aherne (0-1); J Hanratty, D McKenna; K Carragher (0-1), S Kernan (0-2), T Kernan (0-1); J Clarke, A Cunningham (0-1), O McConvillle (1-2). Subs: M McNamee for S Kernan, D O'Callaghan for P Kernan, C Cumiskey for Carragher, K Brennan (1-0) for Cunningham, R Finnegan for Hughes.

Kilcoo - S Kane; N Branagan, D Branagan, S O'Hanlon; D O'Hanlon (0-4), A Branagan, Gerard McEvoy; P Greenan, A Devlin (1-0); R Johnston (0-1), P Devlin (0-3), D Kane (0-1); J Johnston, C Laverty, Gary McEvoy. Subs: F McGreevy for Johnston, J McClean for A Devlin, S Devlin for Kane.

Referee - J McQuillan. Tweet

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