St. Loman's 1-16
Tyrrellspass 0-15

The Flanagan Cup returned to its spiritual home of St. Loman's last night after the Mullingar club bridged a 50-year gap with victory over Tyrrellspass at Cusack Park.

County star John Heslin played a captain's part as the Blues withstood a third quarter comeback from the losers to run out four-point winners. Heslin - who scored 2-16 against Garrycastle in the semi-final - registered 0-8 on this occasion, with half of that tally coming from play.

Declan Rowley's men set the tempo from the off, racing into a 0-6 to 0-0 lead thanks to scores from Heslin and Shane Dempsey. But Tyrrellspass - for whom Ger Egan posted 0-10 (0-9 frees) - had narrowed the gap to 0-5 to 0-10 at the break.

A trio of points from Egan and one each from Martin Flanagan and Dean McNicholas had Tom Coffey's charges level on 0-10 apiece before Heslin got the next score to steady Loman's.

The winners added three more unanswered points before delivering the decisive blow in the 47th minute when the impressive Dempsey set up wing back David Whelan for the only goal to push the winners into a 1-14 to 0-10 lead, and there was no way back for Tyrrellspass after that.

A key factor in St. Loman's success was the performance of their young corner back Stephen Gilmore, who restricted Denis Glennon to a solitary point.

St. Loman's - S Gallagher; S Gilmore, S Flynn, A Carroll; G Glennon, P Dowdall, D Whelan (1-0); C Kilmurray (0-1), P Sharry (0-1); E Price, W McGovern (0-1), C Reilly (0-1); K Reilly, J Heslin (0-8, 4f), S Dempsey (0-3). Subs: G Hickey (0-1) for C Reilly, J O'Toole for Dowdall, D Rushe for Carroll, B Murphy for McGovern.

Tyrrellspass - D Quinn; E O'Neill, J Gonoud, B Gavin; D Jessop, P Sheridan, S Arthur; G Egan (0-10, 9f), D McNicholas (0-1); C Slevin, David Glennon, A O'Brien; B Slevin, M Flanagan (0-2), Denis Glennon (0-1). Subs: Cathal Daly for O'Brien, Ciaran Daly (0-1) for C Slevin, S Quinn for Arthur, R Dunbar for Sheridan.

Referee - N Ward. Tweet

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