Brilliant Crossmolina keep the Mayo flag flying

Crossmolina Deel Rovers were crowned AIB Connacht Intermediate Football Champions following a richly deserved 1-7 to 1-6 victory over Roscommon's Elphin in the final at Dr. Hyde Park, writes Aiden Henry.

Not alone was it a fantastic win for Crossmolina, but also for Mayo in general as they were the last team standing in the county with a chance of winning a provincial club title this year.

This was a brilliant team performance by Crossmolina. They laid the foundation for the victory in the opening half with some magnificent football and fully deserved to lead by five points at the interval (0-6 to 0-1). While they did slacken off in the second half after scoring an early goal, they still finished strongly to see off a fine Elphin side.

Now the Mayo and Connacht champions will now contest the All-Ireland series, and it would a brave person to bid against them not going all the way. They will play the Leinster champions in the All-Ireland semi-final on the first Sunday in January, with an All-Ireland final to follow in Croke Park for the winners of that encounter.

Despite playing in their biggest encounter of the year, this young Crossmolina certainly showed no early nerves as right from the off they settled into the job in hand. They took control of the opening half from the throw-in, displaying great maturity in the way they controlled the ball and defended any threat from Elphin.

The fact that their opponents only managed to register one score in the first half was testament of Crossmolina’s five-star opening-half display.

While Elphin recorded five wides to Crossmolina’s one in the opening half, all of them came as a result of their forwards taking long-range shots due to the severe pressure from the Mayo men.

Elphin goalkeeper Aaron Brady somehow managed to get his fingertips to an early James Maheady shot and knock it over the bar. Maheady doubled his side's lead three minutes later when he converted a free from a difficult angle, and added a third point, this time from play, to leave it 0-3 to 0-0 at the end of the first quarter.

The second quarter followed a similar pattern, with Crossmolina on top. Now, however, Fionan Duffy took over scoring duties, landing a delightful point from play in the 17th minute and adding two more from placed balls before the opening half came to a half.

In between the two pointed frees, Elphin finally registered a score, a pointed free by Fintan Cregg, in the 27th minute. It left them five adrift (0-6 to 0-1) at half-time, with a mountain to climb in the second half.

The Roscommon champions came out with all guns blazing in the second half. When goalkeeper Aaron Brady pointed an early long-range free to narrow the gap to four, it gave hope to their supporters.

The hope was short-lived, however, as Crossmolina produced a great passing move that involved several players before ending with Niall Coggins, who gave Brady no chance with a thundering drive to the back of the net.

Now seven points up, one expected Crossmolina to go on and win the game comfortably. However, they started to give the ball away with some poor passing, and on two occasions it resulted in Elphin getting scores. They lost their way a bit, and it allowed Elphin to get back into the game.

After Coggins' goal, the next four scores went to Elphin, three pointed frees by Fintan Cregg and one from play by the same player. Two of these came while Elphin were reduced to 14 players after Gavin Murray was black carded.

With nine minutes of normal time remaining, Elphin were just three points down. However, Crossmolina regrouped and despite coming under some severe pressure, they kept their opponents scoreless until the sixth minute of injury time while at the same time increasing their lead to four points when Fionan Duffy converted a brilliant free in the 63rd minute.

Although Elphin were awarded a penalty in the dying seconds that was converted by John Finnerty, it proved to be the last action of the game. The whistle blew straight after to confirm Crossmolina as deserving Connacht intermediate football champions.