Antrim Senior Football Championship Final
Erin's Own Cargin 2-8 Cuchullains Dunloy 3-12
By Maghnus Dunne
Almost 90 years on from their last Antrim Football title, Dunloy are Saffron kings once more after they gave four-in-a-row hopefuls Cargin an exhibition in attacking football at Corrigan Park on Sunday afternoon.
It was one way traffic from Dunloy on the scoring front despite Cargin enjoying early spells of possession without really troubling the umpires either side of the uprights.
Tomas McCann attempted to land the first blow of the game, but after a scramble inside the square Dunloy managed to escape with the possession and drove a counter-attack led by Keelan Molloy who managed to clip a superb two-pointed effort over the bar and get the game up and running.
John McNabb in the Cargin net saw two of his kick-outs nicked by the Dunloy midfield with Tom McFerrin seeing orange flags raised by the umpires. Despite early domination of possession, the men from Toome could not muster up much of an offensive in the opening stages.
In the tenth minute disaster seemed to have struck for Dunloy when Reece Cunning was deemed to have fouled Tom Shivers with the referee calling for the penalty kick.
The usually reliable Tomas McCann stepped up and most of the Corrigan Park crowd were left in disbelief as the Cargin forward stepped up and blazed his effort wide of the mark.
Dunloy were spurred on from then and Ryan McGarry's point saw them lead by four at the mid-way point.
Reece Cunning fizzed a superb ball into the path of Aodhan McGarry who found Luke McFerran free in the box who made no mistake and slotted the ball underneath his opposing keeper.
Conhuir Johnston pointed to give Cargin some hope before dealing a huge blow at the end of the half when he managed to see his goal effort deflect off Reece Cunning and loop the Dunloy keeper who could only watch as his side's five point lead dropped to just two as the half-time whistle blew.
The second half was more of the same as Dunloy got off on the front foot once again when Seaan Elliot weaved his way past the Cargin defence before finding brother Nigel Elliot with the hand pass, who rifled his effort into the top corner of the net.
Goal-hungry Dunloy were awarded a penalty themselves after Nigel Elliot was fouled by Callum Gribbin inside the box. Seaan Elliot fired his penalty into the roof of the net as Dunloy looked hell bent on their first football title in almost a century.
Cargin were given a glimmer of hope when Pat Shivers was dragged down by Ryan McGarry and Mick McCann stepped up and dispatched his penalty.
Despite late pressure it was truly Dunloy's day and the win was sealed when Tom McFerran pointed with a hand pass in a late counter-attack.
The North Antrim stronghold of Dunloy will no doubt cherish this victory as they flipped the script on the favourites.
Cargin: John McNabb; Benen Kelly, Ronan Gribbin, Conan Johnston 1-02; James Laverty (C), Kevin McShane, Sean O'Neill; John Carron, Kevin O'Boyle, Paul McCann; Michael McCann1-03 (1tp), Tom Shivers, Tomas McCann 0-03.
Subs: Jack O'Neill on for Ronan Gribbin, Eunan Quinn on for John Carron, Pat Shivers on for Tom Shivers
Dunloy: Christopher McMahon; Reece Cunning, Aaron Crawford, James Scaly; Aodhan McGarry, Ryan McGarry 0-01, Conor Kinsella; Eoin McFerran, Deaglan Smith; Eoin O'Neill, Sean Elliot (C) 1-08 (2tpf, 0-01f), Tom McFerran; Luke McFerran 1-00, Keelan Molloy 0-2 (tp), Nigel Elliot 1-00.
Subs: Barry McClockey on for Deaglan Smyth
Referee: Darren McKeown
