Kingscourt Stars showed themselves to have the tougher claws and the sharper teeth in a disappointing Cavan SFC semi-final opener at Kingspan Breffni which finished 1-12 to 1-8 in their favour against Ramor United.
The Stars were workmanlike at best in the first half but showed their mettle in retrieving a 1-3 to 1-6 interval deficit while holding Ramor to a single point over the course of the final 23 minutes of the game.
The Stars opened the scoring after barely two minutes through Padraig Faulkner and the 2020 Allstar was to double his points tally before the first half was completed.
Ramor did their best work in the first half and were actually far more threatening at the business end of the field. Their division of labour in the forwards was much more pronounced, even if the tactic of lorrying the ball into the strapping Killian Maguire on the edge of the square was as predictable as it was
initially effective.
In the absence of the injured Ado Cole, the aforementioned Maguire did a fine job of unsettling Kingscourt’s last line of defence but, more specifically, it was his textbook goal – after a pin-point, belly-high delivery from Ben Smith in the 17th minute – which was his stand-out contribution in the opening half.
Earlier, Odhran Cunningham marauded up from the back to find the net for the Stars to put them 1-1 to 0-2 in front in perfect conditions.
Kingscourt lorded things in the third quarter and their four unanswered points saw them steam into a 1-7 to 1-6 lead after 39 minutes and they were never to be headed thereafter.
A Jack Brady free (42) briefly hoisted Ramor onto level terms, but the Stars cantered their way over the finishing line with Meath star Jordan Morris notching two gems either side of Ramor ’keeper Brady expertly denying Joe
Dillon a second goal for the blues.
Defending champions Gowna recovered from a near-comatose start at Kingspan Breffni to reach yet another Cavan SFC final with 1-18 to 0-14 win over
Crosserlough.
Match favourites Crosserlough got off to a flier and in careering their way into a 0-5 to 0-0 lead inside the opening six minutes threatened to run away with the spoils.
With county star Patrick Lynch on fire on the 40, Crosserlough looked the part early on, but a hat-trick of unanswered frees steadied the Gowna ship.
Gowna actually manufactured the first goal chance of the game when Oisin Pierson burrowed through, but his shot from point blank range was batted out by Thomas Byrd in the 11th minute.
One minute later, Gowna netminder aped his counterpart’s skill by thwarting Harry Boylan.
With Ryan Donohoe to the fore in the engine room for Gowna, the defending champions had reduced the deficit to just two points (0-6 to 0-8) when Patrick Lynch rifled the ball just inches wide of the Gowna post in going for goal.
Four minutes after Donohoe fired over (27) to level (0-8 apiece) matters for the first time in the game,
Crosserlough midfielder Conor Rehill ensured his side led by the odd point in 17 at the interval.
Just seconds after the restart, Gowna leaped into the lead (1-8 to 0-10) for the first time after 2020 Ulster SFC final goalscorer Conor Madden netted after some bare-faced ball watching by the Crosserlough full-back line.
Cock-a-hoop Gowna stayed on the front foot thereafter, out-scoring their opponents by six points to one in the final 13 minutes with the dismissal of star man Patrick Lynch in added-on time adding insult to injury for the match
favourites.
