O'Neill praises Cross spirit in late comeback win

Crossmaglen midfielder Oisin O’Neill said their dramatic Ulster Club SFC quarter-final victory over Gowna was “a complete game of two halves”.

The Armagh champions fought back from trailing by 11 points at one stage to win the game at the death, with O’Neill playing a free short to brother Rian, who split the posts for a two-pointer to send his club into the final four with a 1-22 to 2-18 comeback win.

Oisin, the older of the O’Neill brothers, was delighted by the resilience of his side to, as they did so often in the Armagh championship, clinch victory from the jaws of defeat.

“It was a complete game of two halves from our perspective. We were really disappointed in how we played in the first half and how we didn’t do any of the things we talked about in the three weeks since the county final,” he said.

“When we got it together in the second half, you saw the football we can play. We’ll be happy with a lot of aspects of the second half, and we missed a lot in the second half too, and the next day we need to take those scores because we could be punished.

“When we get on a roll we are hard to beat. In the middle, we compete hard from kickouts, someone said we won 10 in a row of their kickouts and it gives you a great platform to try and push on and get scores, but we still have a lot to work on.”

Oisin also explained that his decision to take the late free short rather than go for the two-point score was because it was a “tough” free and he felt there were others, like his younger brother, in better positions who could score at least a point to take the game to extra time.

“I saw Rian and a couple of other boys and thought they might be able to get a one [point score] to take it to extra time as it was quite a tough free,” he added.

“I saw him and he was going for two anyway and thank God it went over.”