Kilcoo 2-9 Loughinisland 1-4 Kilcoo ended 72 years of long hurt yesterday afternoon at Pairc Esler, where they saw off Loughinisland with a resounding second-half performance in the Down senior football championship final. Playing in their first county senior decider since 1948, the Magpies raced out of the traps here with points from full-back Niall Morgan and Dominic McEvoy helping them into an early 0-3 to 0-1 lead. Loughinisland were unlucky to have hit the net when Mark Valentine's shot came off the post, but it didn't dishearten them to create more opportunities and in the 20th minute they got their reward, as corner-back Ryan Stranney sent Jamie O'Reilly through for the young attacker to move the Blues into a 1-4 to 0-4 advantage on 30 minutes. O'Reilly (1-1) and Seamus O'Hare (3 frees) had accounted for all of Loughinisland at this stage, but little did they know it would be all their team could manage for the remainder of the game. Conor Laverty had a penalty saved for Kilcoo shortly after that, but Anthony Devlin notched a wonderful point to bring the difference down to two points at the half-time whistle. Minutes into the restart Devlin turned provider to Dominic McEvoy, who fired a brilliant goal to the Loughinisland net to move the Magpies back into the lead. Laverty added a point to push Kilcoo four in front and when the same player won a penalty for Paul Devlin to convert they were boasting a 2-8 to 1-4 advantage. Behind by double scores, Loughinisland's heads dropped and in the closing minutes there were dismissals for Kilcoo defender Aidan Branagan and Loughinisland pair Dan Gordon and Seamus O'Hare. Tweet

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