Crossmaglen equal awesome record

ARMAGH SFC Final Crossmaglen 0-13 Pearse Óg 0-8:CROSSMAGLEN Rangers strode into the history books yesterday when they equalled the record of county titles won in succession by Ballina Stephenites.

In chalking up their 13th Armagh championship title on the trot, Rangers fired out a message that they have no intention of abdicating their throne as they now target the retention of their Ulster crown.

Pearse Óg were forced to start without defensive kingpin Andy Mallon and lost another county star in wing-back Paul Duffy with a shoulder injury after just two minutes. But Rangers had to rely heavily on the unerring accuracy of Oisín McConville and Aaron Kernan from frees to see them through while a catalogue of unforced second-half errors by Pearse Óg ultimately undermined their feisty challenge.

McConville bagged six points in all and Kernan landed five - all these scores were from frees - with John McEntee contributing the winners' only two points from play. All Star Ronan Clarke's three first-half points helped Pearse Óg stay in touch at 0-6 to 0-5 at the interval as did the efforts of Gerard Barton and Seán Moore in midfield. But in the third quarter Rangers, despite playing against the wind, showed their experience and guile with McConville adding four important points between the 37th and 50th minute.

CROSSMAGLEN RANGERS:P Hearty; M Ahern, F Bellew, P McKeown; A Kernan (0-5, all frees), J Donaldson, P Kernan; T McEntee, D McKenna; M McNamee, J McEntee (0-2), J Clarke; T Kernan, C Short, O McConville (0-6, all frees). Subs: J Murtagh for Clarke (37 mins), K Carragher for Short (60 mins). Yellow cards: McConville (3 mins), Bellew (26 mins), Donaldson (30 mins).

PEARSE OG:C McKinney; G McCoy, M Toner, A Duffy; C Rafferty, J P Donnelly, P Duffy; G Barton, S Moore (0-2), G Loughran (0-2), C Clarke, D McAuley; D McManus, Ronan Clarke (0-4, 0-3 frees), Ross Clarke. Subs: T Turley for S Gribben (45 mins), S Clarke for Moore (52 mins), E Maguire for Ross Clarke (54 mins). Yellow cards: Duffy (5 mins), McCoy (38 mins), Loughran (46 mins).

Referee:Rory Robinson (Maghery).