Kilcoo (Down) 0-13
Ballybay (Monaghan) 0-7

Down champions Kilcoo proved too strong for Ballybay as they booked their place into the last four Ulster club senior football championship yesterday in Clones.

After a promising start, which saw two early points for Jerome Johnson, Kilcoo slipped behind by the 19th minute after Shane McGuinness (free), Hugh Malone and Thomas Kerr (free) had inflicted damage for the Monaghan winners, but their opponents would hit back in timely fashion through Paul Devlin (2), Johnson and Darragh O'Hanlon to hold the 0-6 to 0-3 advantage come the interval.

Donal Kane stretched the lead to four for the visitors, which Kerr and Brian McCabe halved by the 40th minute, but that was about as good as it got for Ballybay as their opponents took control, with O'Hanlon on top form, and by the time Drew Wylie was red-carded the writing had already been on the wall for the Monaghan champions.

Kilcoo - S Kane; N Branagan (0-1), N McEvoy, D Branagan; S O'Hanlon, A Branagan, G McEvoy; P Greenan (0-1), D Kane (0-1); J Johnston (0-4), P Devlin (0-2), D O'Hanlon (0-3); C Laverty, A Devlin, G McEvoy. Subs: R Johnston (0-1) for A Devlin, A McEvoy for J Johnston, J McClean for G McEvoy, S Devlin for D Kane.

Ballybay - S Gorman; F Smyth, D Wylie, R Wylie; E Rutledge, B McCabe (0-1), B Wylie; S McQuillan, T O'Neill; T Kerr (0-2), S McGuinness (0-2), F McArdle; H Malone (0-1), C McGuinness, C Malone. Subs: C McAviney for F McArdle, D Ward for C Malone, P Stuart (0-1) for B McCabe.

Referee - B Cassidy. Tweet

Most Read Stories