All-Ireland club glory for Steelstown Brian Ógs and Kilmeena

Two clubs from very different settings enjoyed historic success in Croke Park on Sunday afternoon in two very different styles, as Steelstown Brian Ógs and Kilmeena were crowned the AIB Intermediate and Junior club football champions.

Steelstown Brian Ógs, founded as recently as 1987 and winners of their first ever Derry Intermediate title this year, were always in control of their contest with Trim, eventually prevailing by 3-14 to 2-05 despite conceding an early goal to Aaron Lynch and losing Eoghan Concannon to a red card early in the second half.

Ben McCarron, Cahir McMonagle, and Eoghan Bradley all racked up the scores for the Derry City club as they moved 0-10 1-02 clear by half-time, and that lead could have been even more extensive but for a high number of wides, particularly in the second quarter of the game. However the pace, movement and interplay of Steelstown was such that the chances kept coming.

They added the first score of the second half but then were forced to deal with Concannon's dismissal, which they did in fine style.

Ben McCarron played in Eoghan Bradley, who was then dragged down for a penalty, and McMonagle was decisive and emphatic from the resultant penalty, hammering it to the roof of the net.

Two minutes later Steelstown effectively put the game to bed with their second goal of the match when McCarron cut in from the right and curled a beauty of a shot into the top left corner to push his team 2-11 to 1-04 clear.

Trim, who were just the third ever Leinster club to reach the final of this competition, by now realised that the wait for a first ever All-Ireland champion at this grade from the eastern province was going to continue, but they kept plugging away and got some reward when Eoin O’Connor