AIB Ulster Club Senior Football Championship quarter-final: Trillick (Tyrone) 0-9 Crossmaglen Rangers (Armagh) 0-4
IN the opening half of this eagerly anticipated provincial quarter-final, it was hard to know whose county championship hangover was worse – Trillick’s or Crossmaglen’s.
Played in dank, foggy conditions in Healy Park, RTE bosses must have questioned the wisdom of their decision to screen this Saturday night clash between the Tyrone and Armagh champions after a pedestrian and, quite frankly, boring first half of football.
Both sides seemed indifferent to the idea of progressing on the Ulster stage.
By full-time, it was clear Crossmaglen’s hangover was much worse, as Trillick threw off the shackles to hit seven second-half points without reply to book their place in the semi-finals.
The Tyrone champions deserve a lot of credit for being able to change gears so decisively after the restart – but this tie will be remembered as much for how poor Crossmaglen were in the second period where they failed to muster a score.
A miserable night was compounded by Jamie Clarke’s straight red card five minutes from time for an off-the-ball incident involving Trillick’s Sean O’Donnell.
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At that stage the game was already irretrievable and the soul-searching among the south Armagh men had probably already begun.
Trailing 0-4 to 0-2 at the interval, it was not until the 38th minute that Trillick edged in front for the first time, thanks to James Garrity’s second point of the night.
Trillick finally started to resemble the side that had conquered the O’Neill County only a few weeks earlier.
All of a sudden, their attackers were perpetual motion, they kept good width in their play and Richie Donnelly drove them from midfield, notching a point in each half.
Trillick probably paid too much respect to the famed black and amber jersey in the opening half – but once they started running at the Crossmaglen defence in the second period they were immediately rewarded.
Ciaran Daly – Trillick’s goal hero in the county final against Errigal Ciaran – broke a tackle and pointed in the 33rd minute.
Garrity did the same to put Trillick 0-5 to 0-4 ahead in the 38th minute before Ryan Gray hit back-to-back scores to effectively end Crossmaglen’s challenge with still 12 minutes left on the clock.
While Trillick hit some second-half ‘worldies’, they were able to break Crossmaglen’s defensive lines and get shots off too easily.
Breaking one tackle was usually enough for the Trillick attackers to take aim.
And when the Armagh champions mounted a few attacks of their own, their shot selection and general decision-making were badly off-key.
The harder they tried to get that elusive score, the more desperate their efforts became.
County ace Rian O’Neill always had at least two Trillick players for company – Peter McCaughey and nearby sweeper Rory Brennan while Rangers manager Anthony Cunningham tried to re-invigorate his side's attack by making three personnel changes between half-time and the 46th minute.
But nothing worked as Crossmaglen hacked several attempts wide of Trillick’s posts.
Indeed, it’s worrisome for the Armagh champions that their best players are still Jamie Clarke and Aaron Kernan and, of course, the O’Neill brothers – Rian and Oisin.
Trillick's Lee Brennan scores a glorious point, featuring a delightful dummy. pic.twitter.com/YmbSqbPRVC — RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) November 11, 2023
Inspiration was in short supply from other sources.
Clarke got Crossmaglen off to an excellent start by popping over the first score of the night on eight minutes. Rian O’Neill converted a free 10 minutes later before Trillick registered their first score after 22 minutes through Garrity on the loop.
Clarke grabbed his second on 23 minutes with a superb effort from the edge of the scoring zone – but there was little threat elsewhere.
Even though they hadn’t reached anywhere near their potential in the opening half, Trillick boss Jody Gormley felt they were still in a “good enough position” at half-time.
But they never anticipated just how easy it would be to get behind enemy lines in the second half once they started running at the ‘Cross defence.
“I don’t think we tweaked that much [for the second half],” Gormley said afterwards.
“Our handling was not as sharp as it could have been, our decision-making wasn’t as good as we would have liked it to be [in the first half].
“You know, this is an exceptional group of players so there wasn’t that much tweaking to be done, just a few minor adjustments. But we raised the tempo of our game.
“Fair play to Crossmaglen, they were difficult to break down, particularly in the first half, but we feel we’ve worked very hard this year and at no stage did we feel we’d lose our composure - and that was a big thing.”
The score of the night came from the gorgeous left foot of Lee Brennan in the 50th minute. With Crossmaglen trailing by three [0-7 to 0-4] and little hope of them mounting a comeback, Brennan appeared to be well marshalled by Aaron Kernan.
With no back-up nearby for Kernan, Brennan finally shook off the veteran defender with a brilliant dummy before splitting Crossmaglen’s posts.
And there was still time for Richie Donnelly to hit his side’s ninth score of the night and soak up the rapturous applause from the club’s faithful in the main stand.
“Everybody knows the Tyrone championship is a serious championship to get through,” Gormley added.
“You need to peak for every single game and there is no doubt that prepared us for that battle.
“We probably didn’t recover well enough after the championship final. But we’ll get back out on the pitch this week and see where we can improve.”
Trillick: J Maguire; S O’Donnell, P McCaughey, D Tunney; S O’Donnell, R Brennan, D Gallagher; R Donnelly (0-2), L Gray; C Daly (0-1), N Donnelly, R Gray (0-2); D Donnelly, L Brennan (0-2, 0-1 free), J Garrity (0-2) Subs: C Garrity for N Donnelly (48), D Kelly for D Tunney (51), D McQuaid for Sean O’Donnell (56)
Yellow cards: J Garrity (48)
Black card: D Donnelly (13-23)
Crossmaglen Rangers: M Murray; O McKeown, R Kelly, T Og Duffy; A Kernan, C Cumiskey, C Crowley; S Morris, O O’Neill; P Hughes, A O’Neill, O Kieran; J Clarke (0-2), R O’Neill (0-2 frees), C McConville Subs: R Fitzpatrick for P Hughes (h/t), O Caragher for R Kelly (37), D Cumiskey for A O’Neill (46), C O’Connor for O Kieran (51),P Blessing for C Crowley (58)
Yellow card: J Clarke (10), O O’Neill (60)
Red card: J Clarke (55)
Referee: B Cassidy
