Published: Wednesday, 9th December, 2009 5:00pm

Champions make it two in a row

at New Inns, Lavey

It was billed as a battle between two rival, sharp-shooting forward lines but, in the end, it was the rock-solid Ramor-Munterconnacht rearguard that won them this hard-fought Division One Under 21 title.

The amalgamation's win was built on a tremendous ten-minute period before half-time, during which they outscored the off-colour Rories by 1-2 to 0-0, and a solid work ethic.

Although the New Inns pitch was excellent, the cold and wind made for difficult conditions and better suited the winners, who snuffed out the threat of Belturbet danger man Brendan Fitzpatrick and were more economical with their use of possession against the wind, which was blowing diagonally towards the dressing rooms.

The strength of Ramor-Munterconnacht's midfield "diamond" was clear from as early as the third minute when marauding centre-back and man of the Match Damien Barkey dummied Danny Anscombe and struck the butt of the post.

By that stage Ramor were already one up following a free from the excellent Jack Brady, and although Brady and Fitzpatrick exchanged frees, it became clear that Ramor were the better-balanced side all round.

However, sheer class is hard to thwart and talented 17-year-old corner-forward Niall Reilly did his best to keep Belturbet in the game, curling over three sublime points from the right wing on limited possession.

The first of Reilly's points arrived in the 15th minute and cancelled out another Brady free, but Stephen Monaghan edged the champions back in front with a good free a minute later.

With joint captains Monaghan and Stephen Sheridan doing well at midfield and centre-forward respectively, Ramor began to take charge and a sweet Sheridan free doubled their lead.

Back came Belturbet and Reilly with his second and third points to level it up, but the game turned on the following 90 seconds.

Firstly a good ball from Monaghan set up the overlapping Barkey for a neat point before, from the next attack, Ado Cole set up Shane O'Reilly, who smashed his shot against the crossbar, only for Barkey to follow up with a cheeky backheel from close range to open a four-point gap, 1-5 to 0-4.

Good fielding from Monaghan set up Paul Queally for Ramor-Munterconnacht's seventh score on the stroke of half-time to leave the reigning champions "sitting pretty", five points to the good, 1-6 to 0-4, at the break, having played against what was, admittedly, a swirling wind.

Belturbet needed to tear into their opponents in the third quarter to have any chance on the home stretch and, to their credit, they did up the ante but found Ramor-Munterconnacht a tough nut to crack.

In worsening conditions, first, Niall Reilly curled over a free to make it a four-point game and after ten scoreless minutes, Fitzpatrick added another to cut the gap to three.

With their tails up and the amalgamation momentarily stuttering, Belturbet went for broke and fired over two quick scores in the 16th and 17th minutes, the first a Fitzpatrick free after a fine fetch from Johnny Klushe and the second coming from wing-forward Enda Henry.

The winners responded with a well-worked move out of defence involving James McEnroe and Jack Brady that finished with a clever fisted point from Shane O'Reilly, but another close-range free from "Bud" brought the gap back to two, 1-7 to 0-8.

Ramor needed a score and it arrived from the boot of Stephen Monaghan, curling over well under pressure form the right of goal.

Belturbet, who missed a lot of chances, let Ramor-Munterconnacht off the hook with a couple of misses from relatively straightforward-looking frees and they were duly punished at the other end, the skilful Stephen Sheridan blasting over a brilliant point on the run on the 60-minute mark to put four between them and effectively write finis to the Rories' challenge.

Belturbet had time for two last attacks but failed to score as Ramor deservedly hung on to take their second successive title at this level.

Ramor-Munterconnacht: Alan Tracey, Raymond Farrelly, Stefan Connolly, Terry McCabe, Adam O'Connell, Damien Barkey (1-1), Colin Murphy, Stephen Monaghan (0-2, 1f), James McEnroe, Sean Nolan, Stephen Sheridan (0-2, 1f), Jack Brady (0-2f), Shane O'Reilly (0-1), Paul Queally (0-1), Adrian Cole

SUB: Michael O'Reilly

Belturbet: Danny Anscombe, Peter Shannon, Daryl Dolan, Padraig Rehill, John Teague McGinley, Mark Teevan, Donal McGee, Johnny Klushe, Damien O'Reilly, Enda Henry (0-1), Conor Vaughan, Breanon O'Reilly, Niall Reilly (0-4, 3f), Brendan Fitzpatrick (0-3f), Martin Miller.

SUBS: Ryan Kelly.

Ref: Gerry Sheridan (Mullahoran)

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