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\nRyan Johnston of Kilcoo (L) in action against Shane Mimna of Erne Gaels<\/p>\n
Kilcoo (Down) 4-12 Erne Gaels Belleek (Fermanagh) 1-10<\/p>\n
With three points between the teams at half-time in Armagh city, this Ulster club SFC semi-final could have gone either way.<\/p>\n
Kilcoo rarely do defeats these days, however, and the Down kingpins turned in a powerful second-half performance to secure their place in the 7 December final – their seventh provincial decider in 13 seasons – with plenty to spare.<\/p>\n
The 11-point winning margin hardly flattered them either as they hit the afterburners after the break and burned off Declan Bonner’s Fermanagh champions at their ease.<\/p>\n
Paul Devlin and Eugene Branagan struck the first-half goals for the 2022 All-Ireland winners and the second-half majors came courtesy of Shealan Johnston and Ceilum Doherty.<\/p>\n
Kilcoo had 10 different scorers in total but, in truth, probably still have more to offer with Scotstown or Newbridge their opponents next month.<\/p>\n
That will be Kilcoo’s fifth final in the last six seasons after what was their 13th win from 16 games in the province since the start of their seven-in-a-row dominance in Down.<\/p>\n
Still, they haven’t won an Ulster title since 2021 and were beaten in last year’s final so boss Martin Corey will demand his players’ full focus and an improved display in a fortnight.<\/p>\n
But it’s the end of the line for Belleek outfit Erne Gaels who struck a stoppage time goal at the end of the second-half but were still outscored by 2-08 to 1-03 in that 30 or so minutes.<\/p>\n
Kilcoo arrived in Armagh with a patchy record at the venue; seven wins and five losses from their dozen provincial outings there.<\/p>\n
Their most recent game here was the 2024 Ulster final, which they lost to Errigal Ciaran.<\/p>\n
A more positive stat was Kilcoo’s three wins from three when facing Fermanagh teams in Armagh city.<\/p>\n
They had the more comfortable quarter-final too, seeing off Loughmacrory with five points to spare whereas Belleek needed extra-time to see off Kingscourt.<\/p>\n
That was the four-time Fermanagh champions’ first ever win in the province and they chased another landmark success here.<\/p>\n
But with the wind behind them initially, they probably needed to hit the interval at least a point or two ahead.<\/p>\n
They did pick off two two-pointers – one from Ryan Lyons early on and a second from Barry McCann approaching half-time – but still trailed at the interval.<\/p>\n
\nRyan Johnston of Kilcoo (L) in action against Shane Mimna of Erne Gaels<\/p>\n
In fact, Kilcoo probably should have led by more than 2-04 to 0-07 at the turnaround given the amount of opportunities they created.<\/p>\n
That 2-04 total came from a dozen scoring opportunities in the first-half, four of which went wide and two of which dropped short.<\/p>\n
Devlin recorded one of the wides in the 22nd minute when he was played in by Miceal Rooney and slammed a shot off the outside of an upright.<\/p>\n
They did at least grab a goal shortly after that miss, winning back possession from the kick-out and working it out to Eugene Branagan on the left who raced through and converted.<\/p>\n
That left Kilcoo 2-03 to 0-04 clear, their first goal coming from Devlin in the third minute after he was fed by Ceilum Doherty.<\/p>\n
Belleek fielded without centre-forward Thomas McCafferty, who got married in Rome on Friday. Full-back Paul Ward was unavailable too and they missed him in a defence that Kilcoo cut through too easily at times.<\/p>\n
Kilcoo took over completely in the third quarter and put the game out of sight well before full-time.<\/p>\n
Points from Callum Rogers and Doherty straight after the restart hinted at what was to come.<\/p>\n
The Magpies put a big press on the Belleek kick-out and Ryan Johnston drilled back-to-back points before Shealan Johnston snatched their third goal.<\/p>\n
He pounced on a short kick-out that went astray and Doherty grabbed their fourth goal in the 54th minute, lobbing the ‘keeper with a precise finish.<\/p>\n
Kilcoo were in cruise control and even veteran attacker Conor Laverty, the Down manager, got a run out for the closing minutes.<\/p>\n
Belleek clawed back a consolation goal in stoppage time when sub Seamus Ryder squeezed a snap shot from close range beyond Niall Kane.<\/p>\n
Kilcoo: Niall Kane; Tiarnan Fettes, Ryan McEvoy, Niall Branagan; Miceal Rooney (0-01), Darryl Branagan, Callum Rogers (0-01); Aaron Morgan, Anthony Morgan (0-02); Shealan Johnston (1-01), Ceilum Doherty (1-01), Eugene Branagan (1-01); Paul Devlin (1-01), Ryan Johnston (0-02), Jerome Johnston.<\/p>\n
Subs: Sean Og McCusker for Jerome Johnston (46), Lorcan Ward for Anthony Morgan (50), Jack Devlin (0-01) for Ryan Johnston (55), Barra McEvoy (0-01f) for Shealan Johnston (55), Conor Laverty for Paul Devlin (58).<\/p>\n
Erne Gaels Belleek: Brian Ryder; Martin Gilfeddar, Ultan O’Reilly, Shane Mimna; Barry McCann (0-02, tp), Jack McCann, Oisin Kelm; Michael Og McGarrigle (0-01), Ryan Lyons (0-04, 2 tp); Brian Mullin (0-01), Ultan Kelm, Aogan Kelm; Shane Rooney (0-01, 0-01f), Odhran Johnston, Dan McCann (0-01).<\/p>\n
Subs: Seamus Ryder (1-00) for McGarrigle (h\/t), Padraig Johnston for Mimna (46), McGarrigle for Dan McCann (50), Eamn Og Magee for Gilfeddar (55).<\/p>\n
Referee: Diarmuid Boylan (Monaghan).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kilcoo (Down) 4-12 Erne Gaels Belleek (Fermanagh) 1-10 With three points between the teams at half-time in Armagh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-154294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}