Middletown 1-19 Keady 2-12
Middletown completed a historic four in a row of Armagh Senior Hurling titles yesterday afternoon with a battling win over rivals Keady.
A dominant second quarter along with Ryan Gaffney’s 40th minute goal saw Kevin Hughes men over the line.
Keady fought right to the very end, but some wayward shooting in front of the goal posts let them down.
The Lamh Dhearg men made a terrific start to the game and raced into a seven-point lead inside the opening ten minutes.
Conor Renaghan’s outstanding goal handed Keady the early advantage. The midfielder was played through by captain Conor Corvan and coolly dispatched the ball into the top corner.
Fionntan Donnelly (2) and Tomas Galvin pointed to make the score 1-6 to 0-2, but Keady didn’t get another score for the next 21 minutes as Middletown took control.
Man of the match Dean Gaffney inspired the Middletown comeback and kickstarted a scoring spree that yielded nine on the trot.
Free takers Gaffney and Donnelly traded scores before the interval with Middletown ahead by one 0-11 to 1-7.
Keady weren’t to be shook off easily however and Sean Colton nudged them ahead with a goal five minutes after the turnaround.
Ryan Gaffney netted shortly after, set up by his younger brother Dean, but Keady rallied to get back on level terms.
Donnelly, Renaghan and corner back Barry Shortt all raised white flags to ensure a nervy final quarter.
But Middletown had history on their minds, and they knocked over four of the last five scores to bring home the Jimmy Carlisle Cup.
