Nugent kicks Cullyhanna    into Final

Cullyhanna 1-21 Crossmaglen 0-23

CULLYHANNA manager Stephen Reel praised the character of his side after coming from ten points down to overcome Crossmaglen Rangers and book their place in the Armagh Senior Club Championship Final.

“The big thing with us, we all talk about set plays and game plans and tactics and what way we’re set up but that’s only one bit of the game. These boys have serious character and that’s something you can’t coach,” said Reel.

“These boys have that in abundance and they’re just never beat and they love a challenge. We told them to keep going, keep the composure, keep the discipline and keep plugging away and we knew one score at a time we could claw it back and that proved to be the case.

“No doubt about it, we’re good at these comebacks. It’s not an ideal way to play, it’s not a textbook way to play but it’s a great trait to have. They know how to fight back and they know how to win when their backs are against the wall.

“They have great character, they have great determination, they’ve been on a journey now for three, four, five years. It was a big rebuild initially but if you start at the start, strip it down and build it up, that’s part of the things you need to bring with you.

“They’re a good group of lads that train hard. They do their work, they do their prep, they do their recovery, they do all the things that you don’t see on the football pitch, it’s a culture you build, it’s not something you coach and the boys have good character.

“They row in behind each other and they know it’ll be someone else that stands up the next day, someone could make a mistake but their teammates will row in behind them. We know mistakes happen but it’s who’s going to pick the man up beside you.

“It’s small things like that. That develops over a period of time with a group of players and they’re a good group of players. They’ve been in an intermediate final, an Ulster final, an All-Ireland final and now they’re in a senior final all in the space of two years.”

Indeed, St Pat’s produced a stunning comeback to edge out Rangers in injury time by a point whilst Madden shocked the holders Clann Eireann with three points to spare.

It looked like Crossmaglen were home in a boat having dominated the scoreboard for most of the game but their neighbours claimed the only goal of this classic derby at a crucial juncture in the second half which proved a dramatic game changer.

Crossmaglen’s Cian McConville who had been absolutely brilliant scoring eight points before being black carded was forced to watch his team’s demise from the sidelines.

Cullyhanna’s late winner was almost a carbon copy of their dramatic semi-final victory over Cross back in 2016, when a late Mal Mackin goal shattered their neighbours quest for a 20th title in the previous 21 years.

On this latest occasion they came from 10 points down to grab a victory.

Aidan Nugent’s two-point free late on proved the difference as St Patrick’s tore up the script on the 47-time champions to leave themselves just a win away from what would be the club’s first ever senior championship triumph.

Crossmaglen had made a strong start to this thrilling semi-final, running up a 0-10 to 0-5 lead after the opening 15 minutes and the scores of Cian McConville and Aaron O’Neill would help put them nine in front.

Stephen Reel’s men pulled back a couple of points before half-time, when the sides went in with the scoreboard reading 0-15 to 0-8, but their opponents threatened to run away with it again after the change of ends as points from McConville, Oisin O’Neill (2) made it 0-19 to 0-9 come the 39th minute.

Crucially, the victors hit the net in their next attack via Shea Hoey and they battled back into contention with Nugent, who finished on 0-13, sending over frees and Gavan Duffy and Ross McQuillan landing scores that suddenly left three in it.

Nugent sailed over a two-point free on the hour mark to leave things on a knife edge before repeating the trick deep in injury time to cement Cullyhanna’s first SFC final berth in nine years.

Cross had one last gasp chance to win it, but an audacious Rian O’Neill free fell short.

Crossmaglen go out with their heads held high, they played some fabulous football, blooded a lot of players and all their county men stood up with Oisin O’Neill and Cian McConville landing outstanding scores.

But the day belonged to the comeback kings Cullyhanna, they looked dead and done but not for the first time this season Aidan Nugent delivered the big scores when it really mattered which sits up a unique senior final against Madden.

It’s been an incredible couple of years for Cullyhanna, who only two years ago won the Intermediate crown and then the Ulster and All-Ireland title, but Reel insists it was all about getting to where they are now.

“When we first came in, it wasn’t about winning an intermediate county title for what it meant, even though it’s a lovely trophy to win, it was about getting back to senior. That was the whole goal, whatever way we had to do it,” Reel said.

“We think Cullyhanna club should be in senior football and we think that group of players should be in it. We knew there was a bit of youth coming through, we knew there were boys traveling and so on that were coming back.

“We knew if we kept it together, that’s something myself and Mal Mackin and Ciaran McKeever said, that we needed to keep the thing together and keep it tight and get everybody back and weather the storm.

“Take the young boys through and create a good culture and a good team environment and standards and that’s where we’re at today now.

“In many ways, the boys two years ago in the intermediate final maybe thought they were in the wrong final. There was no doubt about it, as good as the intermediate was, we had one eye on this, there’s no question about it.

“We have nothing won yet. It’s only a semi-final. There’s a big day in two weeks’ time, there’s a massive game and a massive challenge and it’s definitely one we’re looking forward to but we just need to go and assess the bodies.

“In many ways, when you get to a final, the hard work only starts now. It’s a massive two weeks and there’s a lot of work to be done.”

The club and community will quite rightly go mad but the Cullyhanna boss says he’ll try and keep the players isolated from the madness and focused on the game in hand. Good luck with that.

“The boys are good, we’ll not get pulled into any of that,” Reel said.

“We’ll just keep our heads down and stick to our routine and our structure and we’ll get recovered, get training and get working.

“Paddy Savage will get at his video analysis and see what he can dig out for us and start looking in to what we need to do. We’ll keep away from all that, it’s good for the club to enjoy that and good for the kids but we’ll keep away from it, it’s not part of our agenda.”

CULLYHANNA: James Carragher, Sean Og Irwin, Francis O’Rourke, Cathal Burns, Sean Connell, Michael Murray, Ross McQuillan 0-3), Gavan Duffy (0-1), Phelim Savage, Jason Duffy (0-4), Shea Hoey (1-0), Gary Mackin, Aidan Nugent (0-13), Tony Donnelly, Kieran McCooey. Subs: Caolan Reavey for Francis O’ Rourke, Neil McCreesh for Gary Mackin, Donnacha Gribben for Cathal Burns.

CROSSMAGLEN: Miceal Murray, Eugene McEntee, James Morgan, Thomas Og Duffy, Rico Kelly, Callum Comiskey, Paul Hughes (0-2),Stephen Morris, Darron McDonnell (0-1), Oisin O’Neill (0-9), Rian O’Neill (0-1), Aaron Haughey, Cian McConville (0-8), Aaron O’Neill (0-1), Ronan Fitzpatrick (0-1). Subs: Odhran Caraher for Darron McDonnell, Odhran Kieran for Aaron Haughey, Aodhan O’Callaghan for Paul Hughes.