Cross to fight loss of skipper for final

Crossmaglen are all but certain to contest captain Stephen Kernan’s second-half dismissal, which threatens to rule him out of their second successive All-Ireland final on St Patrick’s Day.

With time bans still applying at club level, a four-week suspension for a Category II offence would deny him the chance to lead the club against Garrycastle as it must be inclusive of the next game in the competition.

Kernan, who scored Crossmaglen’s second goal in their second-half fightback against Dr Crokes on Saturday, was dismissed by David Coldrick in Portlaoise on Saturday after he consulted with a linesman.

“I would say the club will definitely look at appealing it,” said Crossmaglen PRO Tom McKay yesterday.

Kernan’s exit was the only blemish in an otherwise extremely satisfactory victory for Crossmaglen, having been seven points down at one stage in the first half, facing the wind after the break and then losing their captain with 15 minutes to go.

The gale and intermittent hailstones they faced in the second half did little to discourage them from seeing off Crokes, who had levelled the game in the 52nd minute when substitute Chris Brady found the net after Brian Looney’s initial shot rebounded into play.

But having failed to score for the opening 21 minutes of the half, Crokes didn’t follow up on the goal and it was Aaron Kernan who negated its value two minutes later when he struck Crossmaglen’s third goal when only a point looked on.

The brilliance of Eoin Brosnan at centre-back for the Killarney men wasn’t replicated around him and Colm Cooper’s late free was their only response as the game slipped away.

Crossmaglen, on the other hand, had a handful of performers; Jamie Clarke making amends for a mediocre first half while all three Kernan brothers put in sterling shows.

However, it was the introduction of David McKenna at midfield which helped to turn the tide in the Ulster champions’ favour after being decimated by Dr Crokes in that area in the opening 20 minutes.

“Oh absolutely, David on his own nearly brought us back into the match,” said Crossmaglen joint-manager Tony McEntee. “He wasn’t playing at the start of the match simply because he hadn’t done enough training. He was injured and then he missed sessions but now he’s injury free. To be fair on everybody else we couldn’t start him.

“Winning primary possession is what he’s good at and that completely changed the match.”

Another man who caught the eye was 20-year-old James Morgan, who did an excellent detailing job on Cooper, although the Kerry captain appeared to be struggling again with fitness.

“A super game, a super player,” said McEntee of Morgan. “I said after one of the Ulster matches that he’s the best defender in Ulster and I still say that he’s the best defender in Ulster.”

In what proved to be an engrossing encounter in spite of the swirling wind in front of a 4,084 crowd, Dr Crokes leaped out of the starting blocks, streaking ahead by six points by the 20th minute.

Cooper benefited from the ball being held up by the wind in his roving role between the two forward lines and linked well with his fellow forwards.

Daithi Casey beat Paul McKeown to Ambrose O’Donovan’s ball at the edge of the square to palm the ball past Paul Hearty to make it 1-5 to 0-1 in Dr Crokes’ favour.

Somehow, Crossmaglen dug in and with two tactical substitutes, including McKenna, they trailed by just two — 1-6 to 1-4 — at half-time, largely with the help of Michael McNamee’s goal, a player replaced before the interval.

Crossmaglen’s start into O’Moore Park’s Town End was just as emphatic as their opponents’ had been and they pulled ahead when Stephen Kernan struck a speculative shot towards the goal which Alan Kelly failed to contend with and picked up a nasty head blow for his troubles.

Dr Crokes eventually gathered themselves through Brady’s goal only for Kernan to cancel it out and Aaron Cunningham to kick the insurance point.

Garrycastle are an unknown prospect to Crossmaglen, McEntee admits. Even if it will be suggested they have now tackled the biggest hurdle between them and another All-Ireland title in Portlaoise, he refuses to count his chickens.

“There was a lot of talk that St Brigids were a better team than us from last year in terms of moving on, so if Garrycastle beat them by three or four points they must be a considerable outfit but we’ll look at them and go from there.”

Scorers for Crossmaglen: A Kernan 1-3 (0-3f); M McNamee, S Kernan 1-0 each; O McConville 0-2 (1f); D McKenna, J Clarke, A Cunningham 0-1 each.

Scorers for Dr Crokes: D Casey, C Brady 1-0 each; C Cooper 0-3 (2f); J Doolan, B Looney, A Kenneally, A O’Donovan, E Brosnan 0-1 each.

Subs for Crossmaglen: B McKeown for O’Callaghan (12); D McKenna for Finnegan (17); M Ahern for McNamee (29); K Carragher for Brennan (40); J Hanratty for McKenna (temp sub 43-49); G Carragher for McConville (64).

Subs for Dr Crokes: A O’Connell for Kelly (temp 36-42); C Brady for Kenneally (51); S O’Neill for Looney (58).

Referee: David Coldrick (Meath).