St Gall's sail through

St Gall’s 2-15 Clontibret 0-11

Antrim champions St Gall’s coasted through to their sixth Ulster Club Football Championship final with a clinical display against an outclassed Clontibret side at the Athletic Grounds in Armagh.

Former Fermanagh player Rory Gallagher was the destroyer, scoring both goals in the second half and finishing with a 1-4 tally.

Unfortunately for the Monaghan champions, they were able to provide little effective support for full forward Conor McManus, whose nine points salvo accounted for all but two of his side’s scores.

McManus, hero and villain, was at the centre of all the big moments of the first half.

The Monaghan star stroked over some immaculate points, but presented with two goal chances, he failed to make them count.

First he did all the hard work in rounding goalkeeper Ronan Gallagher, and while he managed to finish the ball to the net, he was penalised for handling the ball on the ground as he stumbled.

There was another golden opportunity for the Farney men when McManus exchanged passes with Fergal Mone, but somehow blazed wide from three yards out when a goal seemed inevitable.

Given the openings they were creating, Clontibret should have been pulling away from their opponents, but by the end of a wind-assisted opening quarter, they held a slender 0-4 to 0-2 advantage.

And with Kevin McGourty and Rory Gallagher dropping into the central area to initiate attacks for the Belfast boys, things started to happen for St Gall’s.

Gallagher, better known as the Ulster Championship’s record scorer, displayed his creative side in setting up points for Terry O’Neill, Kevin Niblock and Sean Kelly, and knocked over a couple himself as St Gall’s eased into a 0-8 to 0-5 interval lead.

And once they got the wind in their backs after the restart, there was no stopping a slick moving west Belfast outfit.

CJ McGourty’s precision pass sent Gallagher in for the first of his two goals, finished with assurance past Paul McElroy, and with Aodhan Gallagher and Sean Burke bossing the midfield exchanges and wing backs Sean Kelly and Paul Veronica adding their dynamism to the attacking effort, Clontibret’s challenge faded still further.

Kieran McGourty stepped into focus with three points, and it was substitute Darren O’Hare who crossed from the right for Gallagher to punch home at the far post to open up a 12 points lead and finally finish off the Monaghan men seven minutes from the end.

St Gall’s: Ronan Gallagher, M Kelly, A McClean, C Brady, P Veronica, A Healy S Kelly (0-1), S Burke, A Gallagher, Kieran McGourty (0-3), Kevin McGourty (0-1), T O’Neill, K Niblock (0-2), Rory Gallagher (2-4, 0-1f), CJ McGourty (0-3 (2f).

Subs: K Stewart (0-1) for McClean (14), D O’Hare for Kevin McGourty (51), M McGowan for A Gallagher (57), S Burns for Rory Gallagher (57), S Kennedy for Brady (57).

Clontibret: P McElroy, C Duffy, C Greenan, E Greenan, D Mooney, D Mone, M Corey, V Corey, J Golden, B Og Magennis, P McGuigan, A Rooney (0-1), F Mone (0-1), C McManus (0-9 (7f), R Gorman.

Subs: JP Mone for Greenan (h-t), M Hughes for Magennis (43), Daihi McKeown for McGuigan (47).

Referee: J McQuillan (Cavan).