Crossmolina 0-16
Nemo Rangers 1-12
Crossmolina Deel Rovers capped off a fine season with their first All-Ireland football championship title after a gripping one point win over Nemo Rangers of Cork at Croke Park this afternoon.
The Mayo club struggled with the early pace set by their opponents but a spirited and more focused performance in the second half was sufficient for a well deserved, but narrow, victory.
Nemo were quick into their stride with full forward Colm Corkery notching up four impressive points.But Mayo inter-county star Kieran McDonald restricted Nemo’s advantage with a fine brace of his own.
The ferocious pace made for an entertaining and exciting end to end game.
Nemo’s early stranglehold on the game appeared to loosen half way through the first half when rapid scores from the enterprising Paul McGuinness and Joe Keane closed the Cork side’s advantage to 0-10 to 0-7 at the interval.
After the break, Crossmolina raised their game to a new level. McDonald tapped over a fine point straight from the restart and then added two further frees, drawing the sides level in the process.
Paul McGuinness finished off an industrious move started by McDonald by punching the ball over the bar to give Crossmolina the lead for the first time in the match.
Johnny Leonard and McDonald then stretched that advantage to three points.Crossmolina were then lucky not to concede a goal following a comical mix up in the defence, but Corkery pointed from the resulting 45 metre free.
With five minutes remaining, Nemo were three points down and should have pegged back some of that deficit but for inexplicable shooting from Joe Kavanagh, Anthony Cronin and Colm Corkery.
Crossmolina full forward Liam Moffatt then pointed a crucial score to extend the Connacht men’s advantage to four points.
Corkery, however, made amends for his erratic shooting moments earlier. With two minutes to play, Stephen O’Brien brought the ball from the heart of the Nemo defence and battled his way through two Crossmolina players before launching a high ball towards goal.
Corkery scrapped hard to win possession of the loose ball and, somehow, found a gap in the defence to blast the ball past Barry Heffernan and reduce the gap to a single point.
However, it proved too little too late as the final whistle blew to crown Crossmolina All-Ireland Club champions.