McCallon lifts Garrycastle

MARK McCALLON netted a golden goal in Mullingar yesterday to keep Garrycastle on track for an historic Leinster Club SFC football title. Not alone has the Westmeath club never won the provincial title, but no team from the Lake County has ever managed to annex the provincial crown.

What’s definite is that the cup will find a new home outside of Dublin for the first time since 2006. Ballyboden travelled to the midlands venue with high expectations. But their hopes of progression were partly undone by the loss of what manager Liam O’Dwyer described as the ‘spine’ of his team.

Captain Declan O’Mahony was suspended, full-forward Kenny Naughton was out with a shoulder injury and county star Conal Keaney cried off with flu before throw-in. Keaney came on and converted a late 45 but the game was up by then, as convincing Garrycastle led form pillar to post.