Flying start for holders Crosserlough in Cavan SFC

Crosserlough made the perfect start to their Cavan senior football championship title defence by scoring an emphatic 5-17 to 0-17 victory over Castlerahan at Kingspan Breffni last night (Thursday).

Dara McVeety’s goal after just three minutes set the tone perfectly for the holders and they’d hammer the ball to the Ballyjamesuff men’s net again seven minutes later via Stephen Smith.

Cavan marksman Paddy Lynch would see a penalty saved by Castlerahan ‘keeper Kieran Daly a minute later, but the barrage continued at that end with more goals from Matthew Costello (penalty), Brandon Boylan and McVeety going in as Crosserlough went on towards a 5-8 to 0-6 half-time lead.

County midfielder James Smith would make his long-awaited return to action as a second-half substitute for the defending champions, stretching their lead to 18 in the opening minute of the restart prior to Castlerahan showing some improvement after the change of ends.

Oisin Kiernan, Rory Smith and Senan Macken all grabbed points in the third quarter as the trailers went on to outscore their opponents by 0-11 to 0-9 in the second period but still finished 15 points short in the end.

This evening’s games in the Oliver Plunkett Cup race see Cavan Gaels meeting Kingscourt at Kingspan Breffni (8pm), with Saturday’s first round clashes seeing intermediate champions Arva take on Killygarry at the Cavan Town venue (5.15pm) before Laragh United play Ballyhaise at the same ground (7pm). Then on Sunday its Gowna versus Ballinagh (2pm) and Mullahoran against Ramor United (7pm) at Cavan GAA HQ.