Kilcoo avenged last year’s one-point Quarter-Final defeat to Scotstown with a surprisingly comfortable victory at the BOX-IT Athletic Grounds to qualify for the Ulster Senior Football Club Championship Final.
Four goals during a dominant ten-minute period, split by the half-time whistle, allowed the Down kingpins to canter into the decider, where they’ll take on either Clann Eireann or Errigal Ciaran.
They added a fifth goal in the final few minutes to leave 11 in the difference in the end. Scotstown struggled to deal with the pace and scoring power of the Johnston brothers and found the Down men’s defence impossible to penetrate.
The sides were matched 0-5 apiece when Jerome Johnston, who man-marked Rory Beggan when the Magpies were out of possession, had his third effort on goal saved by the Scotstown keeper, but the ball bounced off Shane Carey and dribbled over the line for an own goal.
Just seconds later Aaron Morgan’s pointed chance rattled off the post and fell to the waiting Christopher Rooney, a late addition to the starting line-up for Paul Devlin, who slotted home their second goal and had them 2-6 to 0-5 up at half time.
Kilcoo burst out of the traps at the start of the second half and had a third goal in the 33rd minute, with Ceilum Doherty playing through Micéal Rooney, who joined his younger brother Christopher on the goal-scoring list.
Doherty turned sharpshooter and drove the ball into the top corner with his weaker left foot to put his side 13 points ahead. Scotstown actually outscored their opponents for the remainder of the half but couldn’t get back into the contest.
Kilcoo grabbed a fifth goal in the last couple of minutes, with Rooney nabbing a second, with Scotstown’s gung-ho approach of pushing Beggan into the forward line and leaving the goal empty backfiring on them.
SCORERS – Kilcoo: M Rooney 2-0, C Rooney 1-1, S Carey 1-0 (own goal), C Doherty 1-0, J Johnston 0-3 (1f), R Johnston 0-2, Anthony Morgan 0-1, N Kane 0-1 (1f), S Johnston 0-1, Aaron Morgan 0-1.
Scotstown: M McCarville 0-2, J McCarron 0-2 (1f), D Murray 0-2, R Beggan 0-2 (2f), S Carey 0-1 (1f), C McCarthy 0-1, J Hamill 0-1, M McPhillips 0-1, R McKenna 0-1, E Caulfield 0-1.
KILCOO: N Kane, N Branagan, R McEvoy, C Rogers, M Rooney, D Branagan, E Branagan, Aaron Morgan, R Johnston, C Rooney, Anthony Morgan, S Johnston, C Doherty, J Johnston, J Devlin.
Subs: C Laverty for C Rooney (42), N Rogers for J Devlin (55), M Hynes for R Johnston (63).
SCOTSTOWN: R Beggan, D Murray, K Hughes, J McDevitt, R O’Toole, D McArdle, C McCarthy, M McCarville, G McPhillips, J Carey, S Carey, J Hamill, F Maguire, D Hughes, J McCarron.
Subs: E Caulfield for R O’Toole (2 – blood sub), M Maguire for F Maguire (33), N Sherlock for J Carey (37), R McKenna for J Hamill (43), M McPhillips for G McPhillips (46), E Caulfield for J McDevitt (55).