Final spot astounds Crossmaglen

NEITHER Crossmaglen super-sub Martin Aherne nor his team-mates believed they would reach the All-Ireland Club final this year.

A county title would have been recovery, a provincial one would have been a bonus. But an All-Ireland title? That would have been just greedy.

However, the Rangers players never bought into the idea either that they would fall flat on their faces as they believed others, especially those in the media, did.

After Sunday’s win over Kilmacud Crokes, a sixth All-Ireland final now awaits Crossmaglen although it was an unlikely appearance.

“I didn’t see it, no,” he admitted. “We didn’t see it. The media and everyone else wrote us off. They said we were a car crash waiting to happen. They said we got out of Armagh very luckily. I don’t think we are a car crash. I think we are a very good team. We play as a unit and stick as a unit”.

After losing Danny O’Callaghan to a straight red card in Navan on Sunday, they needed to work as a unit. Granted, Kilmacud Crokes had already lost a couple of players but his dismissal in the 45th minute was nevertheless a set-back.

Aherne didn’t see the incident between O’Callaghan and Rory O’Carroll but suggests the timing of it after Crokes had Brian McGrath sent off three minutes before was more than coincidental.

“I didn’t see it, I was warming up. I think the referee was evening it up.”

Aherne, whose two late scores helped Rangers on their way to victory, likened the win over Crokes to a hard-earned victory in the county championship last year.

“It was a battle,” he said of the game in Navan. “We drew with Cullyhanna in the Armagh championship and it really lifted us as a unit. They were two big, hard games and we got out of it.

“We got out of it as a team and as a unit. There is nothing if you get knocked out of an All-Ireland semi-final. Thank God we got out of it”.