Aghadrumsee 1-11 Newtownbutler 0-10

A late Eddie Courtney scoring spree saw Aghadrumsee claim this year’s Junior Championship with a four-point win over Newtownbutler in Roslea on Sunday.

Newtown led by two points with just over two minutes to go but a goal and three points from Courtney, taking his tally to 1-07, saw the Magpies land silverware and a route back to intermediate football.

Jason O’Connor’s side started the brighter of the two teams and were ahead, by 0-05 to no score, after 15 minutes.

Enda McCabe opened the scoring when he ran off the shoulder of Aodhan Durnian and guided over a left-footed effort, after two minutes.

Durnian then curled over a free, from the ground, out on the left wing, to double the advantage.

A stunning Courtney score from close to the sideline added more pressure and just a minute later Darren Kearns worked the ball inside to Aiden Bannon who sliced over a fourth point.

McCabe pointed his second shortly before Diarmaid King dropped an effort wide to add to a wide from Kealan Fitzpatrick.

Fitzpatrick then got his side off the mark after King’s ball to Conor Courtney was shifted out wide and clipped over.

Courtney had a goal chance but his off-balanced effort was blocked by goalkeeper Gerard Grew.

Fitzpatrick sent over the resultant 45’ to close the gap and King then converted a close-range free.

A rolling ball close to goal was met by the left boot of Fitzpatrick and his shot went over the bar for the final score of the half as the sides went into the changing rooms at 0-05 to 0-04.

Fitzpatrick levelled the game four minutes into the second half when his shot was tipped over by Grew.

Courtney hit back-to-back frees to give Aghadrumsee a two-point advantage.

A burst of pace from Ger O’Keefe led to a quick passing exchange between him, Jason Flanagan and King with the latter firing over the bar.

Courtney and O’Keefe traded points before Courtney tied the game again as he picked himself up off the floor to hook over.

King then gave Newtown their first lead of the game and another driving O’Keefe run down the centre of the park saw him offload to Tíarnan Swift who split the posts to make it 0-10 to 0-08.

It seemed like Newtown were about to step into their stride and take control of the contest with less than ten minutes to go but they were unable to capitalise on the lead.

Aghadrumsee looked to be in for a goal but Durnian’s fist pass to Courtney was cut out by the hand of Ruaidhrí O’Keefe.

However, the goal then did come when Tommy O’Hara’s kick dropped into the square and Courtney got his fist on it and the ball bounced into the net to the roar of the Magpies crowd.

Aghadrumsee regathered the ball from the kick-out and Courtney popped over another point, 1-09 to 0-10.

The St Macartan's side grew in confidence and another free from Courtney was followed by a solo run from the forward who then sent over another shot.

Newtown pushed for a way back into the game in added time but substitute Noel Beggan caught a high ball in and another ball in saw O’Keefe have a shot at goal blocked by Domhnall Boyle.

A final hit and hope into the danger area was caught by Dale Crudden and the final whistle sounded as Aghadrumsee’s players streamed onto the pitch to celebrate.