Castlerahan and Crosserlough will square off against each other for the first time in the Cavan senior football championship final after coming through their respective semi-final replays earlier today.

Donal Keogan’s Castlerahan side held on in a thrilling rematch with Lavey in Kingscourt, where it finished 1-19 to 1-16 in their favour.

Last year’s beaten finalists had a commanding 1-11 to 0-6 lead built up at the break, with Oisin O’Connell’s goal and five points on the trot from David Wright, Enda Flanagan, Cormac Daly, Sean Brady and Cian Mackey looking to have them in cruise control.

Chris Conroy’s goal three minutes into the resumption brought Lavey straight back into contention however and they’d narrow the gap down to two via scores from livewire corner-forward Shane Tierney (2), Conroy and Gerard Smith.

Castlerahan steadied the ship with white flags raised by Shane McSweeney, Karl Cosgrave and speedster O’Connell but their New Inns counterparts kept the heat on them until the very end.

Tierney and Darragh Conaty floated over points that outweighed one from Mackey at the far end before ex-Cavan senior Smith had the margin at a mere goal in injury-time.

The Ballyjamesduff side held out though to move into a fourth final in as many seasons (they’ve lost the previous three) next Sunday, where they’ll be favourites against Daragh McCarthy’s Crosserlough side.

In Cootehill, it was the Kilnaleck outfit that dug deep to see off Gowna’s challenge by 0-11 to 1-6.

Cian Bannon’s goal looked to have given Gowna control after 12 minutes but their counterparts donned in black and amber kicked on with points from Pierce Smith (2), Conor Rehill, Paul McEvoy, Mark Stewart and Patrick Lynch to earn a 0-9 to 1-4 advantage by the break.

Scores were at a premium throughout the entire second-half and Pierce Smith and Cian Madden traded frees in the 56th and 59th minutes respectively to leave just one in it going into injury-time.

Gowna had chances to force extra time but couldn’t convert and it was Pierce Smith’s strike in the fourth added minute that assured Crosserlough of a long-awaited return to the Oliver Plunkett Cup decider.

Hotel Kilmore SFC Final@Castlerahan_GAA v @CCrosserlough
At 3.30pm Sun 21st October in Kingspan Breffni#HKCNSFC

— Official Cavan GAA (@CavanCoBoardGaa) October 13, 2018

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