Crossmaglen manager says it was last play, not last kick, as Edendork awaits

CROSSMAGLEN Rangers Shane Lennon cut a relieved and proud manager in the underbelly of Kingspan Breffni Park after guiding his side to another remarkable comeback victory.

He insists that it isn’t part of the Crossmaglen playbook and louring opposition into a false narrative isn’t key to his plans, but instead he questioned his players desire to win in the Ulster Championship for the first time since 2018, when they trailed by eight points at half-time.

“Obviously, as people say, I'm the first 'outsider' that has come in (to manage Crossmaglen),” said Lennon.

“I asked them at half-time what the Ulster Championship really means to them. They have talked about it to me over the past two or three weeks, since we put the Armagh Championship out of our heads.

“It means so much to them, and they felt so hurt by the last three losses that they had in the first round. So, tonight was a massive one for the young lads, and also for the older lads, because they felt as though they were letting people down.

“Obviously, for the younger lads, it was their first experience. But now they have a win under their belt. We will draw a line in the sand and move on to Edendork in two weeks' time. We'll go down to watch that game tomorrow and regroup on Monday night.

“It was dramatic, heart-stopping, and definitely stressful. But we let ourselves down in the first half. It wasn't through a lack of effort, but I felt as though we were just nervy.

“We had 12 turnovers where we were just handing them the ball, and a lot of them were in scoring zones.

“In the last play of the half, we had three experienced guys. Oisin [O'Neill], Cian [McConville] and Aaron Haughey, and we ended up getting turned over by a bad handpass when we were trying to create the final score.

“That summed up our first half – 12 turnovers. But we knew once we tidied that out, we won ball in the midfield, and we dominated the second half in the middle third. We knew that if we got the ball in around the middle, that we would have enough attacking power.

“To be fair, as I said to the lads in there, we probably missed a lot in both halves. In the second half, I felt as though we probably kept them in it nearly.

“I know they had spells and stuff like that, but we missed a lot in the final third. We had a couple of balls half blocked and stuff like that, that we wouldn't usually.

“But I can't fault the efforts of the 19 players that we played tonight. We have probably have another 20 players looking at the back of my head (on the bench) and cursing why they're not getting to play, but out A versus B games are what is pushing the lads on.

“We spoke all week about the fact that Gowna probably had it easy throughout the knockout stages in Cavan, and how that may come against them.

“I felt as though it probably favoured us, that we had a couple of battles like that throughout the year, even the last league game against Culloville where we were well down in that game, I think and won by a point. And obviously it was the same against Clann Eireann as you all know well about. We were 13 down at half-time.

“I know for myself and Gerry [Seaver, Assistant Manager], we said that eight points wasn't insurmountable if we could tidy up our skills. We didn't plan to go 11 down two minutes later, but that showed even more character to come back from that and grind it out.

“RTE were there; it's some entertainment that people have got both in here in Breffni (Park) and on TV. We know that Ulster Club isn't about scoring what we scored there tonight, it's about grinding out results and we did that tonight.

“I'm very proud of the lads. Everyone is pushing hard in the squad, and we have other lads, the likes of Ronan Fitzpatrick and James Morgan who are Senior players and they are struggling to get back on the field.

“We have another two weeks to get them right, and hopefully they can push on.”

Gowna looked to have won Saturday nights game at the death, but Crossmaglen pulled it out of the bag, that’s to the quality of the O’Neill brothers, Oisin and Rian.

“Gerry works in DCU and knows Ryan Donohue, and he said, 'he's gonna shoot!' And he did shoot, and he nailed it. We were probably too slow in getting out to him.

“I felt in the first half that we weren't quick enough to get out to their two-point shooters. We probably defended the centre channels well, but out to the sides they were getting massive space. They kicked three two-pointers in front of me,” Lennon said.

“We probably know the Athletic Grounds and Cross very well, but probably not a lot of the lads have played out here a big pile. Obviously, the inter-county lads would have, but for the young lads in there, it would have been their first time playing out here.“We probably showed our nerves in the first half with sloppy kick-passing, and missed pick-ups, stuff like that which didn't go our way. Cross would take pride in their skills, and I felt that is what let us down in the first half.

“They [Gowna] were obviously disputing the winner, but the TV cameras showed that their goal in the first half was a square ball. So, you're going to get decisions both ways, and obviously whilst it's disappointing for Gowna tonight, we will take any bit of luck.

“Sean Hurson [linesman] told us that it was 'the last play' and not 'the last kick', so that is what caused the confusion. I think they [Gowna] thought it was the last kick, but it was the last play. But we're delighted to get over the line, obviously.

“It wouldn't have suited Oisin; he's a right footer and it was on this side. He spotted his wee brother inside, and his wee brother stepped up.”