All-Ireland club football final results

Junior

• Arva (Cavan) 0-13 Listowel Emmets (Kerry) 0-10

Intermediate

• Cullyhanna (Armagh) 1-8 Cill na Martra (Cork) 0-7

*****

ULSTER FOOTBALL REIGNED at Croke Park on a landmark day for two particular clubs from Armagh and Cavan.

Taking their lead from Cavan side Arva who claimed the AIB All-Ireland junior club title with a battling 0-13 to 0-10 win over Listowel Emmets, Armagh’s Cullyhanna duly put Cill na Martra of Cork to the sword on a 1-8 to 0-7 scoreline in the intermediate final.

Armagh senior trio Jason Duffy, Aiden Nugent and Ross McQuillan all featured in the Cullyhanna win with Nugent scoring 1-3 and proving the gamebreaker.

But John Evans’ Cill na Martra will have nightmares about all the wides they kicked – 17 in total – and their less than 25 percent conversion rate over the hour.

Cork senior Daniel O Duinnin did provide a point for the Muskerry club but also cursed his errant kicking on a day to forget.

Evans’ crew struck the game’s opening score through Antoin O Cuana but quickly racked up the wides and Nugent’s 19th minute goal put Cullyhanna into a strong position.

They led 1-5 to 0-4 at half-time and with Cill na Martra hitting the dozen wides mark by the three quarter stage, the outcome appeared inevitable.

Cullyhanna ‘keeper James Carragher pulled off a series of good saves too while county man Duffy struck what proved to be the insurance point late on.

Cavan’s Ciaran Brady was the key figure in the earlier junior decider as Arva, a senior team as recently as 2017, came from three points down at half-time to beat Listowel by three.

It was all looking so good for Listowel at half-time with Cormac Mulvihill and David Keane shooting a brace of points apiece and defender Niall Collins even spinning one over from the wing.

They led 0-7 to 0-4 but only added one more point from play in the second-half as Arva, with Brady and former Irish underage soccer international Tristan Noack Hofmann superb at midfield, came strongly back into it.

Listowel manager Enda Murphy reckoned referee Anthony Nolan was harsh with the black card shown to Ger McCarthy in the 46th minute. He claimed Nolan erred too by disallowing a stoppage time Joe Grimes goal, deciding instead to pull it back for a free in the buildup.

But Arva also missed a lot of chances and their 0-13 tally was probably the least they should have amassed in the circumstances as they turned up the heat in a terrific second-half.

Brady helped them to break Listowel’s kick-out strategy while free-taker Kevin Bouchier capitalised with a series of points from frees, four in total.