Glen surge past Scotstown to win back-to-back in Ulster

Glen 0-13 Scotstown 0-11

The new year will begin with an old grudge following Glen's successful defence of their Ulster club SFC title, securing a mouthwatering All-Ireland semi-final clash with Kilmacud Crokes.

Malachy O’Rourke’s men produced a huge second-half performance in front of 6,047 at Armagh’s Athletic Grounds to turn a two-point interval deficit into a landmark two-point win.

It’s only the Derry club’s second provincial title but having come up just short in last January’s All-Ireland decider, with Crokes controversially possessing an additional 16th man at one stage late in that game, their eyes will already have turned to the bigger national prize.

They dug so deep to come out on top in this one with two separate blasts of four points in a row in the second-half proving decisive in what was a heavyweight contest in difficult conditions.

Four-time champions Scotstown gave it everything but may ultimately feel that they didn’t lead by enough at half-time having played with the strong wind.

Glen, in contrast, won the second-half by four points – 0-08 to 0-04 – and had huge performers in tireless midfielder Conor Glass and Man of the Mach Eunan Mulholland while county man Ciaran McFaul contributed a vital point in the closing minutes also as they turned the screw.

Scotstown’s big players stood up too and goalkeeper Rory Beggan struck a second-half point from play while Jack McCarron and the Hughes brothers, Darren and Kieran, pointed too and emptied themselves overall but they came up just short in an epic that was level three times after the break.

That Glen-Kilmacud All-Ireland semi-final has been pencilled in for the weekend of January 6/7 at a venue yet to be announced.

Heavy rain began to fall during the warmup