Crossmaglen young guns thriving with O'Neill brothers' return

By Steve Malone

CROSSMAGLEN Rangers boss said that his young players are flourishing since the Calvary brothers Oisin and Rian O’Neill arrived back on the scene.

While the county men of the O’Neill’s, including brother Aaron and cousin Cian McConville, have been a major factor in Crossmaglen’s turn in fortunes the Rangers boss pointed to the future proofing of his young players that won their first county title last month. But being involved in the magnificent comeback over Clann Eireann and the blitzing of Clan na Gael has emboldened their confidence too.

“We have unleashed a new set of players, nine lads played their first county final, which is a new team, yes you have your main bodies, which every team has, but there was a lot of youth in that team and I am delighted for them lads and their families,” said Lennon.

“It was massive for the group but even going two games back before that, the Clan na Gael game was an awesome performance and it gave us confidence. Lads like Pearse Blessing, Aaron Haughey, Aaron O’Neill, those boys were chopping at the bit during the back end of the league but they didn’t have the support backing them up, such as Oisin, Rian and those boys and their presence allowed those boys to express themselves, the same with Odhran Carragher, Ryan Martin, Eugene McEntee and the list could go on. Obviously young Keelan McEntee only turned 18-years-old two days after the county final and his influence throughout the championship has been massive.”

Gowna will provide a difficult challenge for Crossmaglen. Playing on Cavan soil should be an advantage and they will be confident having dismissed Kingscourt in their county final, with every player from number five to 15 getting on the scoresheet.

That shows what an incredible team performance they put in and since they had the same amount of recovery time as their opponents, they will be confident of backing it up.

“I think the three weeks helps us draw a line in a sand over the club championship win, so we are not going straight, we had a week for bodies to recover. Obviously, we had the U21, which was a wee bit of a distraction, we have done our homework and Gowna are a good side, and we will have to be at our best to beat them,” Lennon said.

“Home advantage is massive in these games, Breffni Park. Cross has not played many Cavan champions throughout the years, so it is new for us. We have a couple of niggles, but we expect to have a full panel to choose from on Saturday.”

Oisin Pierson, Conor Casey, Tiarnan Madden and Ryan Donohoue are among Gowna’s top scorers, while no doubt a Brady will have some say, be it keeper Mark, defender Conor, Ryan, Daire or Cormac.

“We are not expecting to be putting up big scores in the cold during the Ulster Championship. There will be no 4-22 or anything like that, if it takes 0-15 or 0-16 to win games, then that could be it,” said Lennon.

“The was a lot of hurt from last year, football wise and hurt from people passing away that you all know about, there was that element to it.

“Obviously in the back of their heads was that Crossmaglen haven’t gone three years without winning a club championship in a long time, so they were determined to bring the Gerry Fegan Cup back to the Cross Hall.

“Last year, the defeat to Cullyhanna was very hard to take, it helped us regroup very quickly, I was driving here at the start of the dark evenings and it was in November last year that we started doing a bit of running at St Colman’s College in Newry.

“We had six lads playing against Killeavy in the U21 championship three nights later. Yes, the Clann Eireann game was massive because both teams were favourites at the start of the championship and the spectacle both teams put on that night. Inches were the difference and Oisin kicked a boomer. At half time we probably thought it was an eight- or nine-point wind and we were 13 down, so we knew we had to bridge that gap, and we have the kickers and if we hit a hot streak, we can blast off those twos.

“You are not going to get four or five players grabbing twos on the one day, you are going to want to be getting your main two-point kickers on the ball. The wind could be howling, and we were training last night, and they were kicking over from the halfway, but the flipside of that is you have to contain teams that have that wind too.”

It is set up for proper Ulster Club Championship classic, the late Saturday night means that it will be cold, so teams will need to play smart, reserve energy and take scores when they come, but Crossmaglen don’t like to play with the handbrake on and if they hit one of those hot scoring streaks, it could be the difference in making it to the last four of the competition.

Saturday (November 7) at 7.15pm

Ulster GAA AIB SENIOR CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP – QUARTER-FINAL

At Kingspan Breffni Park: Gowna v Crossmaglen Rangers.