Drumgath on fire winning the Intermediate title in style

The celebrations will continue around Rathfriland for some time to come, as Drumgath left Pairc Esler last night with the WJ Farrell Cup in tow.

They claimed the Down Intermediate Championship title with a comprehensive 13 point victory over Clann na Banna who battled hard until the finish, but were simply beaten by the better side.

The match was won in the first quarter with the first goal in the sixth minute heralding a scoring spree that saw Drumgath race into an eight point lead. They led by nine points at the break, with that lethal first quarter when they scored1-6 of that tally.

The early stages saw both sides well up for the game and in attack mode from the start.

Shea Byrne opened the scoring for the Gath from a free in the first minute and after a couple of turnovers by both teams, Donal Scullion replied with a point from play.

That was when the onslaught began however, with Cathal Tumilty getting his name on the score sheet, putting Drumgath into an 0-2 to 0-1 lead and while some great defending by Barry Nelson and Odhran McMullan combined denied Byrne another scoring chance, seconds later, with six minutes on the clock, a ball into the square saw Keelan Toner fire into the net and Tiernan Burns tagged on a point to make it 1-3 to 0-1.

Malachy Magee hit the first wide of the game in the seventh minute for the Banbridge side and points from Patrick Downey, Byrne and Tumilty made it an eight point game. Niall Scullion nabbed Clann na Banna's second point from a free on 13 minutes, but it looked ominous for them as Drumgath were quicker on the ball and made most of their efforts count while their opponents gave the ball away too easily and just couldn't catch up when the game got away from them.

The scoring did dry up in the second quarter, after Byrne kicked a super point high over the bar from distance to give his side a 1-7 to 0-2 lead.

Before that, Drumgath goalkeeper Ronan Burns kicking a '45 short into his opposite number's hands and curled a closer range effort wide of the mark minutes later, but that second miss by Burns was after a long delay as Nelson was stretchered off for what looked like an ankle injury leading to seven minutes first half stoppage time and during that spell Tumilty burst through the middle and pointed and Byrne converted a free, either side of a Malachy Magee score to make it 1-9 to 0-3 at the break, with the finish line almost in sight for Drumgath.

That finish line loomed even closer at the start of the second half when Byrne found himself through for goal and while his shot was well-stopped by Clann na Banna keeper Michael McAllister, the ball was palmed straight back into Byrnes' path whose pointed effort flew wide.

Seconds later however, Downey, raced through the middle and drilled into the roof of the net to give his side an unassailable 12 point lead 2-9 to 0-3.

Odhran McMullan and Donal Scullion replied with a couple of points but Matthew McConville and Byrne cancelled them out and on 38 minutes the deal was sealed when co-captain and Man-of-the Match Pearse McPolin set Downey up beautifully for Drumgath's third goal to make it 3-11 to 0-5.

There was no coming back for Clann na Banna and while Donal Scullion kept the scoreboard respectable scoring five of of their remaining seven points to at least put the Clanns into double digits, Drumgath nabbed five more of their own to run out comfortable 3-16 to 0-12 winners, claiming their third Intermediate Championship title - the first since 2013.

MATCH STATS

Drumgath: Ronan Burns; Patrick Downey (2-1), Tiarnan Burns (0-1), Cathal McGivern; Ryan Byrne, Gary O'Reilly, Matthew McConville (0-1); Pearse McPolin, Colm Maginn; Cathal Tumilty (0-4), Darcy Burns, Keelan Toner (1-2); Ryan Hillen, Shea Byrne (0-6,3f), Paul Hillen

Subs: Aaron Monaghan for McConville (53mins), Eoghan Travers (0-1) for Hillen (53mins), Johnny McGivern for Downey (60mins), Sean McCaul for Maginn (60+2mins)

Clann na Banna: Michael McAlister; Dean Lennon, Barry Nelson, Odhran McMullan (0-1); Taylor Hill, Daniel Devlin, Liam Vaughan; Eoin Scullion, Malachy Magee (0-1); Niall Scullion (0-2,2f), Stephen McCavitt (0-1), Shane Haughey; Donal Scullion (0-7, 4f), Kieran Maguire, Connor Lenaghan

Subs: Christopher Ryan for Nelson (28mins), Liam Og Magennis for Hill (H-T), James McGrath for Maguire (40mins), Oran Devlin for McMullan (45mins), Shea Malone for Lennon (58mins)

Referee: Conor Curran (RGU Downpatrick