Castlerahan 1-10
Cavan Gaels 0-8

Castlerahan upset the odds to turnover Cavan Gaels this evening at Kingspan Breffni Park and book themselves into the quarter-finals of the senior championship.

Oisin O'Connell's 42nd minute goal proved to be the hammer blow for the Gaels, whom had kicked eight wides in the first-half after succumbing to a superb Castlerahan start, as their opponents' Trojan work at the back in the closing stages ensured that there'd be no way back for them.

Having raced into a four-point lead after 11 minutes, Brian Mulvey's charges managed to weather a second quarter storm from the Gaels to lead by two at half-time.

The advantage was soon cut to one in the second-half, but in Ronan Flanagan and Cian Mackey, Castlerahan had two outstanding ball carriers and the duo worked possession up to O'Connell, who landed the crucial score to see them through to the last eight, while the Gaels must now come through the backdoor to keep their championship hopes alive.

Conor McClarey had the Gaels into their first lead inside two minutes after tearing through Castlerahan's centre and smashing over Jamie Leahy's crossbar.

The Ballyjamesduff men responded brilliantly to pull four clear within nine minutes, with Sean Brady levelling for them after picking up the rebound of his own lobbed effort on Martin Cassidy. Paul Smith struck them into their first lead on five minutes and when Brian Coleman rifled over from his wing-forward station the underdogs' tails were firmly up.

Ronan Flanagan and Oisin O'Connell made it 0-5 to 0-1, as the Gaels continued to squander chances in the face of their opponents' scorching start, but all the leaders' good work could have been wiped out in an instant when Paul Graham rounded Leahy in the 12th minute but the former county minor's effort somehow missed the open net.

Martin Dunne would see an ambitious goal effort saved by the legs of Leahy soon after, but it took a free from the All-Ireland SFC's current top-scorer to end a 17-minute scoring drought for the Cavan town side. In the next attack, the corner-forward would loop over an excellent point from the right to reduce his team's arrears to two.

Ronan Flanagan and Dunne traded frees from there, as the Gaels began to find a bit of rhythm through another Dunne placed ball. Good vision from Cian Mackey to find Enda Flanagan from a '45' brought the difference back to three heading towards the halfway stage.

Joe O'Connor's men would have the last say of the half through when Micheal Lyng did well to find Dunne inside with a fist-pass, which gave the Cavan ace time and space to send over and reduce the gap to just two (0-7 to 0-5), despite kicking eight wides to Castlerahan's one in the opening 30 minutes.

Mackey and Dunne swapped well-taken points in the first two minutes of the resumption and when Niall Murray got in on the act it looked as though the Gaels were headed towards their first lead since the second minute.

Then came the vital moment for Castlerahan when Mackey carried from centre-forward and found O'Connell inside and from there the wing-forward did the rest, netting low past Cassidy's dive to land a well-timed crucial blow for the maroon and whites.

The Gaels resorted to Dunne in the corner for a reply and he finished over brilliantly once more to keep them in touch, but Castlerahan showed no signs of letting up towards the end as centre-back Caolan McBreen bore through for a fine point before one of the best moves of the night saw Mackey and Fergal Flanagan combining to set-up Sean Brady for an over.

The losers again missed more chances late on, bringing their wides' tally to 12, as Castlerahan played 14 in their own half in the closing stages to help secure a long-awaited senior championship win over the Terry Coyle Park club.

Castlerahan: Jamie Leahy; Fergal Reilly, David Wright, Stephen Cooney; Paul Smith (0-1), Caolan McBreen (0-1), Paul Cusack; Shane Cusack, Enda Flanagan (0-1); Brian Coleman (0-1), Cian Mackey (0-1), Oisin O'Connell (1-1); Sean Brady (0-2), Fergal Flanagan, Ronan Flanagan (0-2, 1f). Subs: Cian McEnroe for Coleman (34mins), Enda O'Connell for P Cusack (47), Stephen Foran for O O'Connell (58).

Cavan Gaels: Martin Cassidy; Niall Gurhy, Marc Leddy, Barry Fortune; Kevin Meehan, Cathal Collins, Levi Murphy; Dominic Reilly, Sean Reilly; Paul Graham, Michael Lyng, Niall Murray (0-1); Conor McClarey (0-1), Vincent Coyle, Martin Dunne (0-6, 2f). Subs: Andrew Graham for Dunne (34mins, temp), Dunne for Graham (36), A Graham for McClarey (47), Robert Maloney-Derham for K Meehan (54).

Ref: Kieran McCarville Tweet

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