All-Ireland Senior Club Football semi-final: St Brigid’s (Roscommon) 1-16 Scotstown (Monaghan) 1-12
St Brigid’s negotiated the icy conditions and the Scotstown challenge with authority to book their place in a fourth All-Ireland Senior Club Football final.
On a bitterly cold afternoon at Breffni Park, the Roscommon champions played with ice in their veins and used all of their experience to take control of this semi-final just before the break and refused to relinquish it thereafter.
It has brought them one step closer to completing a redemption story. St Brigid’s suffered a heartbreaking defeat to Glen in the 2024 All-Ireland decider when they let a four-point lead slip in the dying minutes, eventually losing the game by the minimum.
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It would have been easy for the group to allow that devastating defeat to colour the rest of their playing days, but instead, just two years later, they have cut a path back to club football’s showpiece fixture.
And though they needed goal-line blocks in the second half from both Ruaidhrí Fallon and Seán Trundle, it always felt like St Brigid’s were able to keep Scotstown at arm’s length.
Jack McCarron scores a goal for Scotstown. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
They led by four at half-time and never allowed Scotstown to narrow the gap any further during the second half.
Defensively, St Brigid’s were outstanding, denying Scotstown the oxygen of frees with disciplined tackling and tight marshalling of the Monaghan side’s attacking plays. Rory Beggan scored 11 points in Scotstown’s Ulster final win over Kilcoo last month but here he was limited to just one shot at goal all afternoon – a pointed 45.
Indeed, Scotstown were only awarded two scoreable frees throughout the game.
Joint captains Brian Stack and Paul McGrath were inspirational for St Brigid’s. McGrath was superb at wing back, marauding forward to clip over two important quick-fire points late in the first half, while Stack somehow played on after suffering a horrible fall soon after the restart.
Scotstown, playing in an All-Ireland semi-final for the first time since 1990, will have plenty of regrets though as they had enough chances to make this contest a much closer affair than it unfolded.
There was a period during the last 10 minutes when Scotstown players seemed magnets for Conor Carroll’s kickouts, winning the restarts and penning in St Brigid’s. However, Scotstown came away from those attacks empty-handed, failing to make the kickout turnovers count on the scoreboard.
Scotstown’s Rory Beggan kicks a free. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
“We’d be disappointed with how efficient we were,” said Scotstown manager David McCague afterwards.
“At this level, you’ve got to be clinical and I just felt we just weren’t clinical enough in the game to get ahead at any stage.”
There was little doubt at the final whistle that the better team had won but the first half had largely been an arm-wrestle.
Doubts over whether the fixture would proceed continued until shortly before throw-in as one of the goalmouths remained frozen, but ultimately the decision was made to go ahead with the game.
Brian Derwin arrowed a sixth-minute goal to the top corner of Beggan’s net for St Brigid’s only for Jack McCarron to reply five minutes later with a well-taken goal for Scotstown.
Midway through the first half, few of the 4,837 in attendance would have been surprised had the game eventually gone all the way to extra-time.
But St Brigid’s made their move, outscoring Scotstown 0-7 to 0-1 over the last eight minutes to the break. McGrath’s brace of scores pushed St Brigid’s 1-7 to 1-6 ahead in the 27th minute, retaining the upper hand to the final whistle.
St Brigids’ Seán Trundle celebrates after the game. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
They were 1-10 to 1-6 in front at the interval and shortly after the restart prevented a second Scotstown goal, firstly with Carroll saving brilliantly from Shane Carey before Fallon made a last-ditch block on a Darren Hughes rebound.
St Brigid’s went up the field to extend their lead with a sweet two-pointer from Conor Hand, Scotstown left chasing the game from that moment.
Trundle did a fine man-marking job on McCarron and the St Brigid’s full back thwarted what seemed to be a certain goal by scrambling across to block a goal-bound shot from the Scotstown forward in the final five minutes.
By the end, Scotstown were reduced to lumping hopeful balls in around the square and praying a goal might come from somewhere. But it wasn’t to be.
St Brigid’s will face Dingle in the final at Croke Park in two weeks. It will be their fourth appearance, having won the title in 2013 but losing finals in 2011 and 2024.
A sense of unfinished business is fuelling them now.
ST BRIGID’S: C Carroll; P Frost, S Trundle, R Dolan; R Fallon (0-0-1), B Stack, P McGrath (0-0-2); S Cunnane, E Nolan (0-0-1); C Sugrue (0-0-1), C Hand (0-1-0), M Daly; B Nugent (0-2-3, 1tpf, 3f), B Derwin (1-0-0), B O’Carroll (0-0-1).
Subs: R Stack for Daly (33 mins); C O’Carroll (0-0-1) for B O’Carroll (49); S Kilbride for Nugent (55).
SCOTSTOWN: R Beggan (0-0-1, ′45); R O’Toole, D Connolly, D Murray; N Sherlock (0-0-1), D McArdle, K Hughes; D Hughes, G McPhillips; M Maguire (0-0-1), S Carey (0-0-1f), M McCarville (0-0-2); M Maguire, J McCarron (1-0-3, 1f), F Maguire (0-1-1).
Subs: C McCarthy for Sherlock (ht); T Mallen for M Maguire (46 mins).
Referee: B Cawley (Kildare).