Relief and regrets as finalists to meet for third time

After 64 minutes, what was once a gripping sequel between Crossmolina Deel Rovers and Moy Davitts will hopefully become a memorable trilogy with Saturday's replay of the county intermediate football championship final.

Both sets of players were down on the ground at the end, be it feeling hurt that they had missed their chance to lift the Sweeney Cup or relieved that they will get another opportunity. Two men who will be hoping to carry their form into the replay are Crossmolina’s Fionán Duffy and Moy Davitts forward Cian McHale, both men impressing on the first big day.

“Immediate thoughts are lucky to be in,” said Duffy afterwards. “We get another crack at it next week. We’d have bit the hand off there with a minute to go. It wasn't looking good, they kind of had us under the cosh so it's positive now at the minute. Lucky to be coming back next week,” admitted the centre-forward.

“It's another kind of a funny game. It's two strange games we've played against them now. We were on top for periods, they were on top for periods.

“The weather had a lot to play in it as well, the wind was strong, one of the winds that's so strong it's nearly easier to play into, which is strange. We just have to get back on the road now. We're back training Tuesday evening, Thursday evening, and give it a crack again next week,” added Duffy, who scored four points, including three from frees.

“We played some great football. We were happy with the football we played given the conditions. Again, sloppy goal at the end, to give away something like that, it can't really happen. But, look, it’s all positive, we're delighted to be able to go again next week.” 

Fionán Duffy also heaped praise on forward teammate James Maheady, whose four points from play for Crossmolina were of the highest quality.

“Great player, Jesus, he’s actually unreal in fairness. He gets himself into some serious shooting positions and he nails them. Great game for him today, he’s having a great championship and he’s only young yet so there's great things to come from him.” 

“What a game for the neutral. It was an unbelievable game,” offered Cian McHale, who scored 0-9 for Moy Davitts, including a clutch free to level it in stoppage time.

Moy Davitts had also come from six points behind when beating Crossmolina Deel Rovers in the group stages of this year’s championship.

“They got a goal early on, put us under serious pressure. We were against the wind in the first-half and we went in five down. It was a tough, tough first-half. We knew when we came in though, we’ve been behind in every game so far this year. We tried to relax at half-time.

“They pushed on as well and we were struggling. About 10 minutes left, we thought we were gone but every game so far this year we’ve came back and thank God today it was level at the end. We got a nice goal at the end. We’re counting ourselves lucky this week so we’re happy to be still in for a fight next week.”

Crossmolina manager Brian Benson lamented that they could not close the game out after leading all game and it will be a case of getting the minds right, as well as the bodies, in advance of next weekend’s replay.

“It'll all be about managing the bodies and seeing who's sore and I'm sure a lot of them are sore. So this week we'll just be taking it down, get the bodies right and give it a good crack.

“As I said to the group after, nobody died. We haven't lost the championship, we're still in it. It could have been all over there, that last play could have went over the bar, it could be a different conversation, so we're delighted we're still in it and we go again next weekend.”