St.Paul’s Ulster Minor Football Tournament 2018 Final

Bellaghy 6-11

Crossmaglen 0-8

From Odhrán Crumley at St.Paul’s

Bellaghy have claimed the Ulster Minor Football Tournament at St.Paul’s with a simply devastating, destruction of Crossmaglen.

The midfield pairing of Kealan Friel and Conleth McShane proved unstoppable the former claiming the man of the match accolade while the latter netted a hat-trick.

Going into the game, this one was expected to go right down to the wire. The colossal crowd which poured into the Shaw Road venue spoke of how the minimum would split the sides.

In reality, the opposite played out as, the Derry men recovered from a series of early wides to lead by eight at the break, Lorcan Spier leading the scoring charge before Conleth McShane added a goal minutes before the break.

It would continue to be one way traffic in the second period despite the glistening attempts of Cian McConville in black and amber.

The men in blue from the Oakleaf county were quite simply five star in the second half, further reinforced by their five majors in that period.

Kealan Friel, Paul Cassidy, Oisin McErlain and two more from McShane ensure that the title would make a return to Derry.

Bellaghy scorers: Conleth McShane (3-0), Lorcan Spier (0-5), Paul Cassidy (1-2 1f), Oisin McErlain (1-1), Ronan Lee and Charlie Diamond (0-1f each).

Crossmaglen scorers: Cian McConville (0-3 1f), Patsy Finnegan, Dara O’Callaghan (0-2), Oisin Doyle (0-1).