Rian Dance: 'We play football for moments like these'

By Steve Malone

CROSSMAGLEN’S last gasp winning kicker Rian O’Neill said his side are trying to forge their own way after getting past the Ulster hurdle for the first time in 11-years.

It was an epic encounter, with a finish that was too farfetched to believe as Rian’s two-pointer, with virtually the last kick of the game won the game against Gowna by a point.

The Cavan champions were sick at the final whistle as only seconds earlier Ryan Donohue had steered Gowna ahead with a fabulous two-pointer but when a free was awarded Oisin O’Neill stood up to take an all or nothing free, or so we thought.

“I was more shocked that he passed to me, he passed to me and the space opened up and they dropped off and I backed myself to kick them and thank God it went over the bar,” said Rian.

“I thought he was going to shoot, but it was a tough kick for a right footer, and he passed it out to me.

“It just came to me at the last second and they are the moments you play football for, kicking big scores like that and if you don’t back yourself then you are not going to score.”

The Gowna manager Vinny Corey said that his players only stood off Rian because they believed it was the last kick of the game, but Oisin said that Drumgath referee Paul Falloon told him it was last play.

The last time Crossmaglen won an Ulster Championship game was in 2018, which is a long time for a club that won it an amazing 11 times between 1996 and 2015m but Shane Lennon’s had at least nine Ulster debutants on Saturday these players are keen on making their own history.

“We are trying to forge our own way and hopefully this will give us massive incentive to go on now,” said Rian.

“I think it is about getting over that first hurdle and then you can get a bit of momentum and see where it can take you, but the next game is going to be equally as tough. That is what you want at this time of year, I love Ulster Club games, I look forward to them, even when I wasn’t playing, down through the years we were always going to Ulster Club games with Cross and it was always games like that.

“Cross teams never really blew teams away, with maybe the odd exception, but it was grinding out one-point and two-point wins and hard-hitting football, muck and gutters and whoever wants the game more can go and get it. “

In fact, the last time Crossmaglen faced Gowna in1999, they were managed by Joe Kernan and it took a second half comeback to get over the line to win by a point (0-14 to 2-07) and that year they went on to win the Ulster and All-Ireland title and Rian would love to win an Ulster medal.

“It would mean the world to me, but I am not getting carried away, we are only in the semi-final and whoever comes out tomorrow [Sunday], we will prepare for them as well,” said Rian.

“We beat Coalisland in my first year playing senior and we have been back time and time again and we sort of let ourselves down, I always felt that games got away from us and we started doing rash things.

“Tonight, it was looking that way as well in the first half and we regrouped at half-time and the first ball, they scored a goal but once we pressurised their kickouts and forced them long, it became a war out there and it was the hungrier team at the end that came out on top.

“I suppose that Clann Eireann win was a good stepping stone for us, in that we know the game is not beyond us and with the modern rules if you bang off two or three two-pointers in a row you are straight back in the game. We talked about playing Gowna and how we would play going down the stretch, but we didn’t want it to go that close, they scored a serious two-pointer to put them one point up with a matter of seconds left.

“We hung in there and kept going, it is hunger, you have seen with Mayo this year, it was the hunger up front and the tackling and you can’t give teams that time on the ball are you will be punished. Players are too skilful now, too fast, too athletic to give them time on the ball, especially in Ulster Club, you are not going to get away with it.”