Allen: ‘If we were to pick anybody, Naughton was the fella’

EVEN the birds in the sky felt impelled to take in the intoxicating drama as the nail-biting crescendo approached.

With 12 minutes to go, a pair of crows swept in underneath the roof of the towering Hogan Stand to perch on one of the many booming speakers hanging from its underbelly. They were just in time.

Around about the same time, Cathal Naughton was racing onto the field in place of Neil Ronan and before the thousands of watching neutrals around the country could say ‘Cathal who?’ the young Newtownshandrum man had a goal and a point to his name.