Ramor United took a huge stride towards the quarter-finals of the senior championship last night after downing competition favourites Crosserlough by 1-17 to 1-13 at Kingspan Breffni.

Stephen Smith’s sixth minute goal looked to have last year’s beaten finalists cruising and picking up right where they left off after their 12-point victory over Cavan Gaels at the same venue in Round 2.

However, Ramor battled back to lead at half-time by 0-10 to 1-6 before Dara McVeety’s point early in the restart squared things up in Cavan town.

McVeety and Mark Stuart raised white flags to help open up a three-point gap prior to the Virginia men closing it to one and Ado Cole firing them in front on 44 minutes with a superbly taken goal.

That was the turning of this contest as the 2016 champions strung together five points on the bounce, ensuring Jimmy Higgins’s side were handed their first defeat of the campaign.

Earlier in the day, Cavan Gaels crushed Cootehill with an emphatic 3-20 to 1-11 victory in Ballyhaise to move a step closer to the last eight with a mouth-watering clash against Castlerahan to come on Saturday.

In Kilnaleck, Lavey saw off Mullahoran by 1-14 to 0-11 to book their first win in this year’s competition.

Kevin McDonnell’s side led by 0-10 to 0-5 at the half, with Chris Conroy, Shane Tierney and Karl Duke doing the real damage for the would-be winners.

To their credit, Mullahoran kept themselves in the contest until the late stages, with frees from Cormac Reilly (2) and a Gavin Brady narrowing the margin down to the three on 58 minutes but Darragh Tierney’s injury-time goal settled the issue for the New Inns men.

Saturday evening saw Gowna laying down a marker at Kingspan Breffni where they hit Lacken for four goals in a 4-12 to 1-12 victory.

Conor Madden was first to hit the net after seven minutes before James Galligan pulled one back for Lacken and another from county forward Madden on the eve of half-time had the score-line reading 2-6 to 1-6 when the sides went in.

Oisin Pierson netted Gowna’s third as many minutes into the restart and once Ryan Madden ghosted in behind for number four on 37 minutes the game was over as a contest.

Champions Castlerahan were made battle all the way by Shercock for a 0-18 to 1-10 win at Dolan Park, Virginia, which moves them up to joint top in the SFC table with Kingscourt Stars three rounds in.

The sides were all square at half-time on 0-6 apiece and Shercock would hit the front on 38 minutes with a goal before Donal Keogan’s men steadied the ship and closed out the victory with four unanswered points in the final five minutes.

On Friday night, Kingscourt made their goals count against Killygarry as they picked up a 2-15 to 0-15 win over Killygarry at Kingspan Breffni.  

Darragh Gunne and Peter Corrigan hit the majors for the Meath border outfit either side of half-time as they put a foot into next month's quarter-final stage alongside holders Castlerahan.

Check out the draws for Round 4, which takes place this Saturday evening at 6.00pm, right here.

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