Killygarry march on to first SFC final since 1971

Senior Football Championship semi-final

Killygarry 2-7

Ramor United 1-9

Paul Fitzpatrick at Kingspan Breffni

Killygarry will line out in a first Senior Championship final for 51 years after they dethroned Ramor United in this nailbiting semi-final.

While Ramor were wasteful, Killygarry were deserving winners; they were bold in their approach, took risks and came up with big scores when they were needed. Suddenly, the team who couldn’t win have become the team who cannot lose as they survived another close encounter to march on to a final meeting with Gowna, where they will welcome back county man Oisin Brady from suspension too.

Ramor led by 1-5 to 1-4 at the end of an evenly-contested first half but scored just 0-4 in the second half. John Brady’s men were guilty of some poor misses but

Killygarry hit the jackpot with a goal from their first attack; good work from Daniel Walsh and Daragh Lovett saw the ball centred to Conor Smith, who stroked home with 49 seconds on the clock.

It took Ramor six minutes to open their account, Ado Cole – who was a good outlet at full-forward – winning possession and Simon Cadden supplying the finish.

At the other end, Killygarry had pace to burn and the space to make it count but they were a little slow letting the ball in and Ramor defended well, with Damien Barkey and Lorcan Lynch engaged in entertaining tussles with Smith and Lovett respectively.

Lovett it was who added Killygarry’s second point as Ramor appeared nervy in the early going. However, as the half wore on, the champions got on top, winning the majority of the breaks around the middle.

A needless foul in the Ramor defence was punished by Smith but Ramor responded well when Enda Maguire sent a long ball to Cole and Jack Brady sent over a sweet point off the left.

Ramor were enjoying a period of dominance and made it count when a Conor Maguire shot struck the upright and the rebound was worked to Cole, who buried the ball to the bottom corner of the net.

Ramor’s tails were up but they could only add two more points before the interval, Jack Brady knocking over a free and Mark Magee scoring from play. The latter score came from Conor Bradley running at the Killygarry defence but that was a tactic they rarely employed as the match wore on.

Daragh Lovett spotted a gap and accelerated through before pointing on 28 minutes and a free from Smith rounded off the first-half scoring.

On the resumption, it took speedster Lovett just 20 seconds to create and finish a move which tied the game. Ramor were looking devoid of ideas when it came to breaking down Killygarry’s mass defence and were loathe to release the ball to Cole; at the other end, there were acres of space in front of Lovett and Smith at the other end and Killygarry utilised it.

Ramor held possession for the guts of five minutes early in the second half but couldn’t make it count, registering two wides. Killygarry, from their sole attack in this spell, came up with a goal when a long ball fell to Smith who passed to Martin Reilly; the county veteran fed Mattie McKenna whose finish was perfect.

That made it 2-5 to 1-6 with 42 minutes played. Ramor missed two more placed balls – Liam Brady with a free, Cole from a mark – and a goal chance through Cathal Maguire before sub Adam O’Connell fisted over to make it a one-point game.

Cadden then fisted another but each score had to be chiselled out of granite and in three kicks of the ball, Killygarry added their next via the in-form Smith.

Ramor came again, Cole breaking the ball to James Bradley for the equaliser, but Daryl McKenna won the resulting kick-oiut and the ball was worked to Lovett, who kicked a superb winning point.

Ramor hogged the ball in injury time but could not find an opening. They went for it once but were off target and then, with the final chance, Liam Brady was wide with a 45-metre free off the ground and that was that.

There were joyous scenes after the match as the Killygarry supporters and players celebrated a famous win which sees stretched their unbeaten run in championship football to eight matches since last year, when they stayed up in a relegation play-off.

Killygarry: Paddy Galligan, Conor Connolly, Conor Bates, Daryl Dunne, Daryl McKenna, Cian Reilly, Darragh Kennedy, Mattie McKenna (1-0), Daniel Walsh, Ross Sheridan, Martin Reilly, Mark McDermott, Daragh Lovett (0-4), Anselm Lovett, Conor Smith (1-3, 2f)

Subs: Kevin Lovett for A Lovett (ht), Ben Mooney for R Sheridan (42), David Talbot for D McKenna (55), Darragh Gannon for D Walsh (58)

Ramor United: Liam Brady (0-1f), Lorcan Lynch, Damien Barkey, Brían O’Connell, Killian Brady, Jack Brady (0-3, 2f), Mark Magee (0-1), Enda Maguire, Laurence Caffrey, Eoin Somerville, Simon Cadden (0-2), Cathal Maguire, Paddy McNamee, Ado Cole (1-0), Conor Bradley

Subs: Adam O’Connell (0-1) for E Somerville (40 mins), Liam Maguire for P McNamee (48), James Bradley (0-1) for C Maguire (51), Ronan Patterson for C Bradley (I60)

Ref: Pat Clarke