Aidan Forker of Maghery Seán MacDiarmada shoots to score his side's third goal during the Armagh County Senior Football Championship Final match between Crossmaglen Rangers and Maghery Seán MacDiarmada at the Athletic Grounds in Armagh.
By John Harrington
It says a lot about Maghery’s level of preparation and self-confidence that manager Finnian Moriarty was in no way surprised by the manner in which they shredded the Crossmaglen defence in Sunday’s Armagh SFC Final.
This was a Crossmaglen team, remember, that had won the last 23 county finals they contested, but the weight of that history didn’t burden Maghery in the slightest.
They came with a plan based on scoring goals, and score goals they did on the way to a thrilling 4-9 to 0-17 victory over the Titans of Armagh club football.
“That has been coming,” said Moriarty after the match.
“We have improved progressively throughout the championship and we knew Crossmaglen would come out and play us today and that there would be opportunities to score goals whereas in previous games we struggled to get in towards the goalkeeper.
“They (the goals) came at the right time I think. We scored one at the start and that nearly negates Crossmaglen’s notoriously strong start and then we got one when we really needed it. Because they had outscored us ten points to two and they really put a squeeze on us and if we hadn’t have gotten that goal before half time I think we would have been in serious bother.
“But goals win games and fair play to the boys when the chances were there they put them away.
“We do out homework on them and they do our homework on us. They try and retain five forwards up the field and let Oisin and Rian work around the middle and come back for the opposition kick outs.
“But that also left room in their defence which we haven’t experienced against other teams int he championships.
“So we have a lot of forwards and if teams try and go 15 on 15 against us we would back ourselves and that is what happened today to an extent.”
David Lavery of Maghery Seán MacDiarmada, centre, lifts the cup and celebrates with team-mates following the Armagh County Senior Football Championship Final match between Crossmaglen Rangers and Maghery Seán MacDiarmada at the Athletic Grounds in Armagh.
For much of the first half it looked like the O’Neill brothers, Rian and Oisin, would be the two men that everyone would be talking about after the match.
Rian lorded things in midfield where he won kick-out after kick-out and then put his team on the front foot with driving runs and accurate passing.
The chief beneficiary of most of his clever distribution was his brother Oisin who scored freely in that first half.
That goal just before half-time was critical for Maghery, but so too was the way they blunted the threat of both O’Neills in the second-half.
That was in no small part due to the introduction of substitute Ben Crealy who gave them a ball-winning and play-making presence in the middle third that they had largely lacked until his arrival.
Target-man Aidan Forker who scored a personal tally of 1-3 deservedly won the Man of the Match award, but it was Crealy’s fantastic long-distance pass that gave him the opportunity for Maghery’s third goal which was a real momentum changer in the game.
“I couldn’t be happier for Ben because he broke his collarbone roughly ten or 12 weeks ago and he hasn’t been able to lay at all this season and he was going through a lot and over the last week and a half he started putting his hand up saying he was ready and ready for 15 minutes,” said Moriarty after the match.
“We had wanted to keep him to the end of the match but the way the game was played and the way Cross had dominated the break ball and the midfield in the first half for long periods, if we had waited another 15 minutes it might have been too late. Ben was excellent when he came on and everything he kicked to Aidan stuck and when the ball sticks inside you are on to a winner.”
