McElvaney Recycling Under-21 Football League Division Three Final

Blackhill 7-15 Seán McDermotts 0-5                                   26/6/13

Blackhill continued their renaissance with a comprehensive win over Seán McDermotts in this one-sided U-21 FL Division Three Final at Cremartin on Wednesday. The mid-Monaghan men have been enjoying a good season so far in the junior ranks and this represented their second success in this competition in three years, sandwiching last year’s Division One victory with Oram as Emerald Sarsfields. Philip Donnelly, Ciarán Courtney and Michael Geehan were in lethal form up front for Blackhill, scoring a combined 6-10, while Anthony and Dónal Courtney were also to the fore.

Blackhill signalled their intent straight from the throw-in, as Michael Geehan raced through and laid it off for Philip Donnelly to fire to the net. Ciarán Courtney added a well-struck free before getting on the end of a Donnelly pass to slide home Blackhill’s second goal. Donnelly doubled his tally with a neat finish in the 12^th minute, before a foul on Jason Finnegan allowed Courtney to slot away a penalty. Courtney and Donnelly tagged on points and although the scores then dried up for Blackhill, they still led by 4-3 to 0-1 at half-time.

Blackhill started the second half in similar fashion to the first, with a point from Dean McDermott and a goal by Geehan, who had been well placed by a clever pass from Ciarán Courtney. The Seáns managed a 33^rd-minute point from Brian McQuaid, but Donnelly then completed his hat-trick and points followed from Andrew Burns and Geehan. Conor McElroy kicked a nice score for the Seáns, who got another one back through David McKenna, only for Donnelly and Ciarán Courtney to reply for Blackhill, who got their seventh goal when Donnelly set up sub Mark Tavey to fire home from close range. Geehan added a point and although the Seáns got one back through sub Enda McQuillan, Anthony, Ciarán Courtney and Dónal Courtney kept the scoreboard ticking over for the winners, bringing their number of scorers to eight. Late points from Geehan and Burns capped a most comfortable of wins for Blackhill, whose captain Ciarán Costello lifted the cup.

Blackhill: M McEnaney; C Costello (Capt.), D Courtney (0-1); F McArdle, D McDermott (0-1), T Forde; S Connolly, A Courtney (0-1); A Burns (0-2), C Courtney (2-4, 1-0 pen, 0-3f), M Geehan (1-3); J Finnegan, P Donnelly (3-3).

Subs: M Tavey (1-0) for Finnegan (41 mins), T Courtney for Forde, T Laney for Donnelly (both 47).

Seán McDermotts: C Freeman; R McGuinness, C Kearns; C McElvaney, B McQuaid (0-1), D McKenna (0-1); C McElroy (0-1), J McAleer; J McElvaney, D McNally (0-1), S Freeman; D McCarron, P Murphy.

Subs: E McQuillan (0-1) for J McElvaney (H-T), D Keane for McCarron, M McGuirk for S Freeman (both 43), D McCarron for McAleer (inj., 54).

Referee: X Coyle (Tyholland).

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