Football

Football returns in the Orchard County as Maghery beat Crossmaglen in battle of rusty heavyweights

Oisin O'Neill scored three points for Crossmaglen in Maghery yesterday. Picture Seamus Loughran.
Oisin O'Neill scored three points for Crossmaglen in Maghery yesterday. Picture Seamus Loughran. Oisin O'Neill scored three points for Crossmaglen in Maghery yesterday. Picture Seamus Loughran.

Armagh Senior Football League Division 1A: Maghery Sean McDermott’s 2-8 Crossmaglen Rangers 0-13

APPLES ripening on sagging branches, fresh-cut hay drying in the fields, Union flags fluttering from lamp posts and now, at long last, a roar of ‘catch yerself on ref-er-eeee’ from a red-faced home umpire and a late tackle or two to break summer monotony in the Orchard County.

Yesterday a band of spectators welcomed football back from a vantage point outside the ground as two heavyweights, who’ll have a massive say in the Armagh championship this year, met on the first weekend of club action and although neither side was at full strength, or in top gear, this was a useful run out.

Hosts Maghery got over the line by a single point against a Cross side that included half-a-dozen debutants but created enough chances to win the game. They couldn’t take them though so Finnian Moriarty’s side survived despite scoring just twice after the break.

Credit to Maghery, they made hay while the sun shone in the first half and went in (to their dugout in these restrictive times) at half-time leading 2-6 to 0-8 thanks to goals from Stephen Cusack (a penalty after Brian McIlmurray had been fouled) and Oisin Cushnahan.

But with Stephen Morris winning the midfield battle, Cross dominated possession in the second half and Maghery were forced deeper and deeper by waves of black and amber across the full width of the pitch.

Abbey CBS student Dara O’Callaghan reduced the arrears to 2-6 to 0-9 with a free and, after Maghery ’keeper Eamon Cusack had denied Rian O’Neill with a smart save, Tony O’Callaghan’s point cut the gap to two.

However, three more chances went a begging and Maghery broke to make it 2-7 to 0-11 before Oisin O’Neill and Dara O’Callaghan scores left just a point between them.

The introduction of the Lavery brothers, James and David, seemed to breathe fresh life into Maghery for the final 10 minutes and suddenly they were able to get a grip on a game that had been running away from them. However, like Cross, they could not finish. John Mackle, after he’d done the hard work, and Stefan Forker both hit wides before Brian Fox’s shot was blocked and goalkeeper Cusack sent a sweetly struck 45 over the black spot to give Maghery a little breathing space.

It proved to be enough. Paul Hughes atoned for an earlier wide with a fine finish but that was that and the first competitive game for new Cross manager Steven Kernan, who greeted his old Armagh team-mate Moriarty with a friendly elbow-bump after the final whistle, ended in defeat.

Of course, one defeat in Maghery doesn’t make a summer, and Kernan is well aware of that.

“We’d be very happy with a lot of the aspects of today’s game,” he said.

“When we come down here we know we’re going to be in a battle and today I thought we won most of the battles but we left our shooting boots in Cross, particularly in the first half when we were playing with the wind and we didn’t capitalise on it.

“We kicked a few wides and we didn’t get the ball in to our full-forward line as quickly as we wanted to but some of our play were very good and some of our performances were excellent.”

Her added: “To be back on the field playing competitive football is great. That’s the first real competitive game we’ve had in a number of months, now that it’s over you forget that and you forget that the boys are after serving up a great game of football and that’s their first time playing competitively.

“It sets us in good stead because the championship is just around the corner. We are missing eight or nine players from last year’s championship team and we played with five members of last year’s minor team and I thought they were outstanding.”

The managers Kernan and Moriarty were team-mates on the last Armagh side to win the Ulster Championship back in 2008. The Maghery manager was delighted with a morale-boosting win over the county champions.

“It was a good game of football and I think everybody is just glad to be back playing,” he said.

“We’re happy enough with the performance and I’m just happy in terms of the league because all we have to do is try and get into the top four and then we don’t get relegated.

“That is our main objective in the league this year so we’ll use it to try and build for the championship. There is going to be rustiness, we played a couple of challenge games as well and the ball is constantly being turned over and given away. That’s what’s going to happen.”

Maghery: E Cusack (0-1 45); E Scullion, B Haveron, S Cusack (1-0 pen); O Lappin, G Campbell, A Forker (0-1); C Lappin, S Fox (0-1); J Mackle, B Fox, B McImurray; O Cushnahan (1-0), S Forker (0-4), C Forker (0-1)

Crossmaglen: T McConville; C Crowley, D Comiskey, L Blessing; L Og Finnegan, T O’Callaghan (0-1), P Hughes (0-1); O O’Neill (0-3), S Morris; P Finnegan, T Kernan, J McKeever (0-2); D O’Callaghan (0-3), R O’Neill (0-3), S McConville