Benson’s boys ‘Deel’ with Elphin to claim Connacht crown

AIB Connacht Club IFC – Final 

Crossmolina 1-7 

Elphin 1-6 

Anthony Hennigan at Dr Hyde Park 

22 years after they were last crowned senior champions of Connacht, Crossmolina Deel Rovers took another significant step back towards the upper echelons of club football when becoming the first Mayo side in eight years to win the province’s intermediate championship crown.

Their victory was much tighter than it needed to be, as by scoring only one point in the final 31 minutes they saw a seven points lead whittled down to just one. But on Final Day the result is always king.

Crossmolina added the Gene Byrne Cup to the James Sweeney Cup and Division 2 Cup, after their championship and league double in Mayo earlier this year. Next up, they will play the still-to-be-decided Leinster champions on the weekend of January 4/5. Naomh Mearnóg (Dublin) and Caragh (Kildare) will fight for that right in Parnell Park next Sunday – and you can be sure Brian Benson and his Crossmolina backroom will be interested observers at that game.

Cross’ boss Benson will have taken great delight in a superb first-half display by his team at Dr Hyde Park last Sunday but will have probably felt the second-half was the longest of his life, as Elphin chipped and chipped away at the Deel Rovers lead. That, by full-time, the Roscommon outfit had gotten to within a point of the winners despite scoring just one point from play for the entire game (and even that was created by a quickly taken close range free), is an indication that this was by far a complete performance from the North Mayo outfit.

But if Crossmolina could combine their first-half here with the second-half of their semi-final eight days previous, where they outscored St Michael’s of Galway by 0-10 to no score, then they could rightly be considered as serious contenders for All-Ireland glory, more than two decades after lifting the Andy Merrigan Cup as senior champions in Croke Park.

“We met on the Wednesday night after the county final and decided that we were going to give Connacht a right good crack. We feel we have the squad and the players and the panel, and we’ve a very proud history in Crossmolina, so we weren’t going to just turn up,” said Brian Benson after Sunday’s win.

“We were really happy at the break. We controlled the ball in the first-half and were four or five up at half-time. We were really pleased with that and it was much the same at the start the second-half but then, for the last 15 or 20 minutes, in fairness to Elphin they really came after us. We started turning the ball over and couldn’t get out of our own half,” Benson admitted.

A very stiff cross-field wind favoured neither side but Crossmolina, playing into the graveyard end during the first-half, had settled superbly to their task. James Maheady scored their opening three points inside 14 minutes, the first a rasper that Elphin goalkeeper Aaron Brady turned over the crossbar, the other two from placed balls – a mark and a self-won free. By the 22nd minute the lead had increased to five points as Maheady, who at this point seemed almost unmarkable, laid off to Fionan Duffy who pointed off his left boot before converting a self-won free off his right.

Elphin, the first ever winners of the Connacht Club intermediate football championship back in 2004, just couldn’t buy a score, with county attacker Fintan Cregg, twice, Shane Killoran and even full-back Enda Killoran, all kicking wides before Cregg eventually broke their duck in the 27th minute, scoring a free earned by substitute John Finnerty.

Unlike the goalposts bending wildly in the face of Storm Bert’s dying gusts, the Elphin attack was static for long stretches of the opening half hour, the team choosing to play laterally more often than trying to scythe through a Crossmolina rearguard that enjoyed its fair share of turnovers. In contrast, Fionan Duffy took the direct route when winning a foul 40-metres from the Elphin posts three minutes into first-half stoppage time, and his subsequent conversion meant Cross’ led 0-6 to 0-1 at the interval.

It was an easy assumption to make then, when Niall Coggins blasted home a goal five minutes into the second-half, that maroon and white ribbons were already being tied to the cup handles. But such notions would prove premature.

Elphin goalkeeper Aaron Brady, having missed one just before the break, had just driven over a long-range free the opening point of the second-half when Coggins pounced for his fourth goal in four consecutive games. It was the result of full-forward Patrick Leddy getting a hand to an attempted Elphin clearance and side-footing the loose ball to Coggins who hammered past Brady into the far left corner.

But quite incredibly, that would be Crossmolina’s last score until the third minute of stoppage time, in between which Fintan Cregg scored frees in the 37th, 40th and 51st minutes, and a point from play in the 50th, to leave a goal as the difference heading down the stretch. And this was in spite of Elphin having to play with 14 men for a 10-minute period after Gavin Murray was black carded for taking out Crossmolina corner-back Diarmuid Fox.

The Deel Rovers were a pale shadow of their first-half selves, when Jordan Flynn had dominated around the middle third. Now, too many of their players were carrying the ball into contact, invited Elphin pressure by sitting very deep, and conceded cheap frees within a kickable distance of their posts. The team’s ability to engage James Maheady, in particular, in the play, had also dissipated, with the sharpshooter a peripheral figure for practically the entire second-half.

Fortunately for Crossmolina, Aaron Brady, from a free, John Finnerty and Fintan Cregg each missed excellent chances to narrow the gap further, punishment for which was forthcoming when Fionan Duffy won and scored a free to end the drought.

That had come halfway into what turned into six minutes of stoppage time, the final minute of which saw Elphin’s Nessan Lenehan needlessly pushed in the back for the awarding of a penalty that Finnerty dispatched to narrow Elphin’s arrears to one point. Referee Christopher Ryan, however, allowed time only for the kick-out, sparking a pitch invasion from Crossmolina supporters revelling in their club’s return to Connacht’s consciousness.

“There was a point in it and that reflects the way the game was; there was a really tough battle in the second-half,” stated Brian Benson.

“I said after the county final that to win that title leading this team was the biggest achievement in my football career and now we’ve gone on and won a Connacht championship. I’m getting a great kick out of this management.

“We’ll take a break now, the bodies are fairly broke up, [but] all these lads, they’ve really bought into this journey and hopefully we can keep it going,” he concluded.

Scorers – Crossmolina: Fionan Duffy 0-4 (3f), Niall Coggins 1-0, James Maheady 0-3 (1m, 1f).

Elphin: Fintan Cregg 0-5 (4f), John Finnerty 1-0pen, Aaron Brady 0-1f.

Crossmolina Deel Rovers: JP Mulhern; Diarmuid Fox, Kevin Mulhern, Matthew Gordetskyy; Aaron Coggins, Conor Loftus, Lorcan Loftus; Darragh Syron, Jordan Flynn; Diarmuid Coggins, James Maheady, Niall Coggins; Diarmaid Walsh, Patrick Leddy, Fionan Duffy. Subs: Cathal Carolan (for Syron 45), Stephen Duffy (for L Loftus 52), Mikie Loftus (for Fox 57), Conor Caden (for Walsh 60+2).

Elphin: Aaron Brady; Alex Gleeson, Enda Killoran, Damien Cregg; John Rattigan, Martin McCaffrey, Shane Beirne; Niall Higgins, Luke Mollahan; Evan Gunn, Shane Killoran, Nessan Lenehan; Frankie Cregg, Fintan Cregg, Gavin Murray. Subs: John Finnerty (for Frankie Cregg 25), Conor Lenehan (for D Cregg 37), Cathal Brady (for Beirne 52), Rossa Brennan-Kelly (for Murray 53).

REF: Christopher Ryan (Galway)