Kiernan’s Service Station Cavan SFC final
Kingscourt 0-13 Gowna 5-15
Notorious slow-starters Gowna played a slow-to-the-boil game with all the accuracy of a nuclear clock to retain their Cavan SFC title after a cracking final at Kingspan Breffni.
Prior to the game, turf accountants in the Drumlin county had made last year’s winners 3/10 favourites to become only the second side since 2009 to retain the Oliver Plunkett Cup.
But such was the panache, style and ruthlessness of their charges’ title triumph, Gowna fans will now wonder can the red and green brigade progress to go on and break Cavan’s duck in this year’s Ulster Club SFC?
And, for his part, Gowna’s joint-manager Fintan Reilly was in no mood to temper fans’ expectations after his side’s emphatic county final victory:
“Losing out in the Ulster Club scene last year by going out on penalties definitely hurt our lads but I think we’ve gotten over that now and we’re looking forward to giving any opposition that comes our way now their fill of it.
“We knew that performance was in us.We were written off from the start of the year and nobody gave us a chance but that’s back-to-back titles for us now and there’s multiple championship titles ahead of these lads if they stay together.”
However, the stars appeared to be aligning for the Stars as the final got up and running when, in the 13th minute, Gowna suffered a double whammy when they conceded a fisted point to Jordan Morris and lost centre-back Conor Brady who tore a hamstring in trying to arrest the run of the current Meath star.
But having earlier created two decent goal chances, it was a case of third time lucky for the would-be winners in the 17th minute when marauding defender Ryan Brady hammered the ball high into the Kingscourt net to make it a one point game.
Kingscourt were visibly deflated by Brady’s belter after a neat effort from Padraig Faulkner and a Ciaran Dermody’s gem (16) had helped extend the underdogs’ lead to four points.
Despite the fact that eight of their starting 15 are still under 21, Gowna went onto show a killer touch, using the smotherer’s pillow as their tool of choice.
Gowna were a team transformed after they leaped into a lead (2-3 to 0-6) for the first time in the game when a Cian Madden flick put Darragh McConnon through for a goal (18).
The more seasoned Stars were in danger of taking a standing count and when Gowna’s Oisin Pierson netted on the half-hour to make it 3-5 to 0-8 at the interval, the panic button was staring Kingscourt straight in the face.
However, the goals the Stars desperately needed on the restart to get them back into the game never looked like materialising with only sporadic points from the usual suspects of messrs. Reilly and Dillon keeping their ship barely afloat.
At the other end of the field, it was a whole different story with Tiarnan Madden’s success in finding the Kingscourt net three minutes into the second half, making it a double scores (4-6 to 0-9) game.
It was a slow, painful and long drawn out death for the outsiders and a second goal (39) for the aforementioned Madden paved the way for a slow waltz to the finishing line by Gowna.
“We were very disappointed with the way things went for us last year in losing out on penalties against Enniskillen and I’d like to think if the game had went on for another five minutes we would have came out on top but that’s history now,” reflected Gowna captain Ryan McGahern after what was deemed to have been one of the best Cavan SFC finals for decades.
“I believe Naomh Conaill won (Donegal) so they’ll be a tough nut to beat. We’ll celebrate this win but we’ll be taking it (Ulster Club SFC) very seriously and it’ll be a case of getting back to base and working hard again in a couple of days.”
Kingscourt: J Farrelly; S Gray, P Faulkner (0-1), C Roe; B Roe, P Meade, O Cunningham; P Corrigan (0-2, 1f),
S Burke; C Dermody (0-1), B Reilly (0-3, 2f), A Clarke; J Morris (0-3, 2f), J Dillon (0-3, 1f), S Duffy
Subs K Curtis for S Burke; C McKeown for S Gray; P Farrelly for A Clarke
Gowna: R Bannon; C Brady, R McGahern, E Hartin (0-1); R Brady (1-0), C Brady, T Madden (2-4, 2f); R Fitzpatrick, R Donohoe (0-1); S Hartin, C Casey (0-2), C Madden (0-2); O Pierson (1-1), C Madden (0-2), D McConnon (1-0)
Subs F Brady for C Brady (inj); D Madden (0-2) for O Pierson; TJ Fitzpatrick for
D McConnon; M McKeever for C Madden; J Madden for C Casey
