Castletown-Ballyagran ease past Knockane to claim Limerick Junior B football title

CASTLETOWN-BALLYAGRAN, fielding their first football team after an absence of four seasons, captured the county junior B title in rain-lashed Kilbreedy with an emphatic 3-10 to 0-5 victory over Knockane on Sunday afternoon.

Showing the same desire and focus that blew away favourites Knockaderry in the semi-final, the South champions exerted their dominance right from the start.

The winners had already established a match-winning lead by the quarter mark and, despite the intensity tailing off after that, never reduced their grip on the game as they became the first recipients the Jim (Twin) Lynch Memorial Cup presented by Granagh-Ballingarry stalwart John Lynch in memory of his brother who died last year.

Defeated by Banogue in the 2019 final and looking for their first county title since their senior football triumph in 1941, Knockane were never given a chance to settle and reproduce the form that had brought to the final.

Chasing a reply to Ballyagran's two early goals, they were forced into hurried attacks which failed to open the spaces and then left them open to breaks from deep that moved the task facing them from the improbable to the impossible.

Castletown-Ballyangran led the decider 2-8 to 0-2 at half-time.

SCORERS: CASTLETOWN-BALLYAGRAN: Barry McElligot 1-6 (0-3 frees), Billy Cagney, Danny Shelton 1-0 each, Michael McElligot 0-3 (2 frees), Harry Dore 0-1. KNOCKANE: Vinny Ryan 0-2 (2 frees), Trevor Cosgrave, Alan Cosgrave, Brian O'Leary 0-1 each.