Cavan Gaels 2-13
St Joseph's 1-6

Cavan Gaels finished with a flourish to overcome St Joseph's at the second time of asking in the county minor football championship final replay yesterday evening at Kingspan Breffni Park.

Trailing going into the final ten minutes of this encounter, the Gaels ended up 10-point winners against the Killeshandra/Arva combo, who failed to live up to their brilliant start after they were reduced to 14 men just eight minutes into this decider.

It had been all Joe's up to that point, as ace forward Kevin Bouchier struck a fantastic goal inside the opening four minutes to help them towards a 1-3 to 0-1 lead before midfielder Cien Sweeney was shown a straight red card after catching his marker with an elbow.

Bouchier fired over his third point to keep the Saints motoring, but points from Paul Graham and Cian Byrne had the Gaels right back in it by half-time, when Joe's took in the 1-4 to 0-3 lead.

A sweet score from Gary Tubman looked to be the perfect restart for the amalgamated outfit, however the Gaels performed an onslaught after that and despite bringing their wides' tally up to 12 they were still allowed to draw level through points from Pauric Sexton and the frees of Paul O'Connor.

Out on their feet, Joe's had nothing in response and rued a poor wide from a close range Bouchier free as Andy Graham shot the Cavan town side into a first lead with four minutes to go and O'Connor doubled it heading towards injury-time.

A well-executed '45' from Byrne moved the would-be winners three in front, before another onslaught arrived in the added minutes with O'Connor bagging a cool 2-1 to put major daylight between the sides and seal a 16th triumph at this level for the Gaels. Tweet

Most Read Stories