St Malachy's players celebrate with the Peter Geraghty Cup their Westmeath IFC final over Milltownpass on Saturday last. Photo: John McCauley.

St Malachy's win Westmeath intermediate crown

Kieran Galvin

Published: Mon 2 Oct 2023, 10:13 AM

Last updated: Mon 2 Oct 2023, 10:18 AM

St Malachy's will be back in the senior grade of Westmeath football next year after they edged out Milltownpass in last Saturday's exciting Westmeath intermediate football final.

Team captain Morgan Gavigan kicked the winning point from a stoppage time free as the Castletown/Dysart men prevailed on a scoreline of 1-9 to 0-11 at TEG Cusack Park.

In difficult weather conditions, Johnny Bermingham’s early goal also proved crucial to the outcome and it set Malachy's up for a half-time lead of 1-4 to 0-5.

The defeat means Milltownpass are still searching for their second intermediate title since their sole success in 1981.

Veteran Malachy's goalkeeper Alan Mangan was cleared to play in the final, after the 2004 Leinster senior medallist succeeded in overturning a controversial suspension picked up when on duty as Castletown Geoghegan hurling manager.

Another pre-match boost for St Malachy's was current Westmeath player David Lynch shaking off an injury and he was an influential figure in the narrow victory.

Interestingly, last Saturday's final pitted two teammates from Westmeath's 1995 All-Ireland minor title winners against each other, with Kenny McKinley in charge of St Malachy’s and Maryland's David Martin the Milltownpass manager.

Scorers – St Malachy’s: D Lynch 0-4 (4f), J Bermingham 1-0, S Corcoran, M Gavigan (2f) 0-2 each, N O’Brien 0-1 (mark). Milltownpass: E Gorman (3f), B Kelly 0-3 each, L Brennan 0-2 (2f), L O’Reilly, G Glennon, S Corcoran 0-1 each.

St Malachy’s: Alan Mangan; Eoin Kiernan, Aaron Glennon, Naoise McKenna; David Lynch, Peter Murphy, Aonghus Clarke; Shane Clavin, Johnny Bermingham; Cian Gavigan, Shane Corcoran, Morgan Gavigan; Jack Gallagher, Niall O’Brien, David Maloney. Subs used: Darren Ruane for C Gavigan (40 mins); Conor Murphy for Gallagher (54).

Milltownpass: Ruiarí Coyne; Michael McCormack, Niall Manning, Alan Farrell; Liam O’Reilly, Noel O’Reilly, Gavin Glennon; Sam Duncan, Shane Flanagan; Liam Gorman, Shane Corcoran, Tony Loftus; Liam Brennan, Evan Gorman, Brandon Kelly. Sub used: David Manning for N Manning (h-t).

Referee: Barry Nea (Killucan).

*See more on the final in this week's paper.