Milltownpass bridged a 30-year gap when they were crowned junior football champions following an impressive 2-11 to 0-8 victory over Milltown at Cusack Park yesterday.

Their success maintains the recent trend of relegated sides making a return to the intermediate ranks at the first time of asking. Beaten finalists in 2007 and '08, Milltown led by 0-2 to 0-1 early on thanks to a brace of Joe Kenny points, but pre-match favourites Milltownpass eventually settled and a trio of points from late replacement Kevin Reid helped them to a 0-7 to 0-5 lead at the break.

The game remained in the balance until 10 minutes into the second half when Noel O'Reilly rattled the Milltown net to put daylight between the teams for the first time. Billy Flanagan's charges never looked back after that with the losers' plight not being helped by the dismissal of Michael Connell on a straight red card just three minutes after his introduction.

Milltown had to wait until the 51st minute for Francis McLoughlin to open their second half account, but by then, Milltownpass were cruising and a late goal from David Devine put the seal on a comfortable win. Tweet

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