Early Crimmins goal puts Colman’s on course for Rannafast

Danske Bank Rannafast Cup final

St Colman’s Newry 3-10 St Patrick’s Cavan 0-9

ON THEIR way to the Danske Bank Rannafast Cup final, the St Colman’s Newry forwards showed a tendency to go for goals. If St Patrick’s Cavan were not wary of that threat, they certainly were after just three minutes when Adam Crimmins palmed the ball into their net at the end of a sweeping move.
That put the Newry side into a 1-2 to 0-0 lead, Oisin O’Hare and Oran McCafferty had already pointed, and they were on their way to a 17th title, but a first in 11 years.

This was a confident performance from a competent team who moved the ball swiftly and the player on the ball always seemed to have a couple of options open.

A number were in the running for Player of the Match. Aaron Norris and Tony Magee in the full-back line were very good with Norris picking off an excellent point late on. So too Macdarragh Hynes, Dan McCarthy and goal-man Crimmins, but the accolade would have to go to centre-half back Peter McGrane, a nephew of Armagh’s former All-star Paul.

A rock at the back the Ballyhegan player timed a 70m run to perfection to get on the end of a move and crash home his side’s second goal after 18 minutes.

Cavan also played their part in a fine game of football, Ronan Trainor and Cian Reilly in defence and Fionntán O’Reilly and Shane Tynan in attack, and they had a couple of goal chances that could have made for a lot more interesting game if they had been taken.

However those two first half goals kept St Colman’s at arm’s length from their opponents and the Newry side led by 2-4 to 0-3 at the turnover, although they had to rely on Conor Deery bringing off a super save from Cian Reilly a couple of minutes from the break to maintain the gap.

And again early in the second half Deery got a fine block on Fionntán O’Reilly when he was through on their other clear-cut goal chance.

Although points from Shane Tynan and Peter Smith on the re-start narrowed the gap, St Colman’s began to pull away with five unanswered points between the 38th and 50th minutes, one each from Adam Crimmins, Redmond French, Ronan Fitzpatrick, Oisin O’Hare and Aaron Norris.

At 2-10 to 0-6 the game was gone from Cavan’s reach, but they rallied to hit three points in a row, from Tynan, Jack Tully and Fionntán O’Reilly before St Colman’s finished the game as it had begun with a super team goal.

Possession was claimed in the half-back line and worked quickly through to Adam Crimmins on the 45. The Mayobridge clubman took on his marker and raced through to slip it under Alex Puscasu for a tidy finish.

St Colman’s : C Deery, A Norris (0-1), T Magee, M Hynes, R Campbell, P McGrane (1-0), R French (0-1), J Howlett, R Fitzpatrick (0-1 free), C McElroy, A Crimmins (2-2), D McCarthy, P Clancy (0-1), O McCafferty (0-1), O O’Hare (0-3)
Subs : J Kelly for C McElroy (51), J Devlin for R Fitzpatrick (53), C Rodgers for O O’Hare (55),
St Patrick’s : A Puscasu, R Trainor, C Reilly, C Smith, E Kelly, Caolaoin McCabe, T Harten, P Smith (0-1), R Ayodele, L McEntee, S Tynan (0-3, 0-2 frees), E Shehu, E Brady, F O’Reilly (0-4, 0-2 frees), J Tully (0-1)
Subs: C McKeogh for R Ayodele (18), C Casey for E Brady (35), K McPhillips for T Harten (50), J Smith for E Shehu (51), E Galligan for L McEntee (56), A McGovern for R Trainor (56)
Referee : Niall McKenna