Mullahoran 0-10
Castlerahan 0-5

Mullahoran comfortably disposed of Castlerahan last night in the county senior football championship to book a mouth-watering semi-final date with champions Cavan Gaels.

The Dreadnoughts were hands down deserved winners in this clash which was billed as the pick of the weekend's games at Kingspan Breffni Park, but ultimately failed to live up to the expectations that the large crowd in attendance had come to expect.

Bar a lively ten-minute spell midway through the second-half, Castlerahan were disappointing in this quarter-final as they never recovered from a five-point deficit at half-time with their ace men up front off-key.

The winners signalled their intent right from the throw-in here as Dermot Sheridan claimed first possession and fed Paul Brady, who raced through the centre and smashed a blistering shot off the bar which Castlerahan goalkeeper Jamie Leahy could only watch whistle by him and rebound away to safety.

Mullahoran made up the three points in the next 12 minutes through the frees of Philip Brady and Enda O'Reilly, before Castlerahan were finally off the mark on the quarter when midfielder John Clarke tapped over in front of goal unmarked.

A knee injury to Enda Mulvey beforehand saw the corner-forward have his evening cut short, but the Ballyjamesduff men nearly snuck into the lead with ten minutes to go in the half when Oisin O'Connell slipped by his marker and fired for the corner only to see his effort turned around the post by Eamonn Brady at full-stretch.

Back came Mullahoran, as they bossed the remainder of the half to double their tally via two more frees from the reliable O'Reilly and a slick point on the turn from Philip Brady at his full-forward station, leaving Darren Chapman's side with a 0-6 to 0-1 lead at the interval.

Both sides registered poor wides early on in the restart and it took a sublime score from Paul Brady along the right sideline to get Mullahoran up and running again.

Castlerahan introduced Pauric Cunningham and their own Paul Brady to the fray almost immediately afterwards and it seemed to pay dividends as they produced their most profitable spell of the game.

Operating in a roaming full-forward role, Ronan Flanagan picked up possession 30 metres from the posts and earned a free which he popped over himself. A minute later Paul Smith drew another placed ball for the DCU student to strike and trim the difference down to four.

The momentum was firmly with the maroons at this stage and with a quarter of an hour to go they looked well-positioned for a comeback when O'Connell was released down the right flank and did brilliantly to curl over.

However, Mullahoran just seemed to have an extra gear and laboured for another free for O'Reilly to swing over, before the young corner-forward lashed over another ten minutes from the end to widen the gap back to five.

Ronan Flanagan and the unusually quite Cian Mackey worked a sweet one-two move which saw the former shoot over, but when Mackey dropped short another scoring chance the writing was on the wall and a minute into the added time a Philip Brady free wrapped it up to set-up a showdown with the Gaels.

Mullahoran - Eamonn Brady; James Reilly, Seanie Smith, Daniel King; Daniel Smith, Killian Brady, Fergal Brady; Christy Shiels, Dermot Sheridan; Paul Brady (0-1), Paddy Brady, Tomas Nannery; Danny Brady, Philip Brady (0-3, 2f), Enda O'Reilly (0-6, 5f). Subs: Michael Brady, Daniel Lynch, Raymond Lynch.

Castlerahan - Jamie Leahy; Eugene Hill, Fergal Flanagan, Brian Coleman; Stephen Cooney, Alan Mulvey, Enda O'Connell; John Clarke (0-1), Patrick Cusack; Cian Mackey, Sean Brady, Niall Duignan; Enda Mulvey, Ronan Flanagan (0-3, 2f), Oisin O'Connell (0-1). Subs: Paul Smith, Pauric Cunningham, Paul Brady, Stephen Coleman.

Ref: Packie Smith (Killygarry) Tweet

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