ST KEVINS 2-9

GLEN EMMETS 0-14

St Kevins caused a huge upset in the Louth Junior Championship Final when they claimed a one-point victory over hot favourites, Glen Emmets, on Sunday afternoon.

Substitute, Patrick Clarke, was the hero for the Philipstown side as he landed an injury time point at The Grove to ensure his side claimed the Christy Bellew Cup for the first time in ten years.

The winners had another hero in Cian Callan as the Louth Minor caused problems throughout the game and finished with an impressive 2-6.

The Kevins made a blistering start and boosted by two goals from Callan were five points up at the break. The Tullyallen men gradually reeled them in during the second half and drew level with four minutes to play.

In a tense finale it was the Kevins who dug deep and Clarke found his range from a tight angle to ensure it was Liam Boylan to lifted the cup for a team that featured seven minor players.

What turned out to be a very entertaining final got off to a blistering start as Ronan Grufferty opened the scoring for the Emmets with a point, only for the Kevins to hit back with a Cian Callan goal inside two minutes.

Enda McKenna extended the lead for a Kevins side playing with the advantage of the wind but the favourites looked to have weathered the early storm as points from Conor Grimes helped his side battle back to level at 1-1 to 0-4.

Any suggestion that the Kevins were going to crumble were dismissed when Conor McCullough and Callan sent over points before Callan pounced to score his second goal of the game and make it 2-3 to 0-4 at the end of the first quarter.

The teams traded points before another effort from Callan had his side leading by 2-6 to 0-6 but the last two points of the half came from Tullyallen's Mark Noone and Grimes to leave the gap at four points at the break.

The Philipstown side maintained that gap after the first four points of the second half were shared but the Emmets slowly began to dominate the game.

Points from Conor Grimes, Grufferty and Damien Grimes saw that possession pay dividends as the gap was down to 2-8 to 0-13 with nine minutes to play.

The momentum was very much with Glen Emmets at that stage and when Gordon Healy landed a point to level the game with five minutes remaining his side looked the most likely winners.

However, with the winning post in site the Tullyallen side couldn't finish the job and the Kevins found an extra bit of energy. They twice went close to regaining the lead before Minor star Clarke took his opportunity to fire over the winner deep into injury time.

Not surprisingly, Cian Callan was named Man of the Match.

ST KEVINS: Conor Callan; Barry Byrne, Ian Wogan, Enda McKenna 0-1; Liam Boylan, Patrick Duff, Aaron Khan; Andrew Campbell, Seanie Crosbie; Conor McCullough 0-1, Aidan Craven, Aaron Roche; Lee Crosbie, Paul Duff, Cian Callan 2-6. Subs: Patrick Clarke 0-1 for P Duff, Darren McMullen for A Craven.

GLEN EMMETS: Conor Kelly; Tom Grimes, Andrew Mooney, Niall Hackett; Ronan Carr, Stephen Healy, Keith Farnan; Mark Garvey, Gordon Healy 0-1; Ronan Grufferty 0-3, Conor Grimes 0-6, Ruairi O'Neill; Mark Noone 0-2, Damien Grimes 0-2, David Bracken. Subs: Keith Boylan for T Grimes, Jamie Farnan for M Garvey, Evan English for N Hackett.

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