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McElroy's late goal brings joy for Lisnaskea

ALL IRELAND CLUB IFC FINAL Lisnaskea Emmets 1-16 St James' 0-15: LISNASKEA EMMETTS became the first ever Fermanagh club team…

Mon Feb 14 2011 - 00:00

ALL IRELAND CLUB IFC FINAL Lisnaskea Emmets 1-16 St James' 0-15:LISNASKEA EMMETTS became the first ever Fermanagh club team to win an All-Ireland title when they beat St James' of Galway on Saturday night in Croke Park.

It was a fairly epic victory too as they came from three points down to force extra-time with a last-gasp free and then cut loose in the second period of extra-time to send their large contingent of vocal fans into rapture.

In the first half it didn’t look like they’d need such last-gasp heroics because they looked the more well-balanced team. Their full-forward line of Shane Ingram, Paul Curran and the excellent Daniel Kille were a real threat and all three got on the scoreboard to help Lisnaskea build a 0-6 to 0-4 interval lead.

St James’ enjoyed their best spell of the match in the third quarter when they scored five unanswered points to go three ahead, and with nine minutes of normal time remaining they still led by 0-10 to 0-7.

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Lisnaskea dug deep though and after Ingram gave them hope, Kille held his nerve to knock over two late frees that brought the match into extra-time. St James’ felt aggrieved though because they were adamant Paul Conroy’s free late in normal time which was waved wide was actually a point. It was certainly a very marginal call, and Lisnaskea went straight down the field to get that late equaliser.

In the first period of extra-time Lisnaskea went three ahead only to be pegged back, but they finally shook off St James in the second period of extra-time when a fine goal from Niall McElroy secured a famous victory.

LISNASKEA EMMETTS: B McGoldrick; M Smyth (0-1), P Collins, K Curran; J Woods (0-1), M McKenna, N McElroy (1-0); B Og Maguire (0-1), C Curran; M Little (0-1), S Carters (0-1), A Little; S Ingram (0-2), P Curran (0-1), D Kille (0-8, 0-5 frees). Subs: R Glancy for A Little (53), D Graham for M Smyth (64), P Connolly for P Curran (74).

ST JAMES': J Egan; S Coughlan, A Deacy, C Glynn; JM Burke, J Duane (0-1, 45), T Walsh; P Conroy (0-3, 0-2 frees), M Kelly; M Elwood, E Concannon (0-4, 0-2 frees), S Donnellan (0-4); R O'Connell (0-1), A O'Donnell (0-1), B Dooney. Subs: S Boyle for C Glynn (18), D O'Connell (0-1) for M Elwood (43), M McCormack for B Dooney (66).