Gowna are through to the semi-finals of the senior championship after dethroning Cavan Gaels with a 2-13 to 0-15 victory yesterday afternoon in Lacken.

The Longford border club were full value for their triumph over the holders with TJ Fitzpatrick’s early goal having helped them to lead by one (1-6 to 0-8) at the break before they opened up a five-point lead in the final quarter.

The Gaels made a comfortable start to this quarter-final tie as Padraic Sexton’s brace of points moved them into a 0-4 to 0-1 lead after 11 minutes, but Fitzpatrick had the ball in the back of their net three minutes later and after that Gowna never trailed again.

Oisin Pierson, Conor Brady and Conor Madden all lofted over points before Ciaran Brady cancelled out Seanie Johnston’s single prior to the interval.

Johnston squared the sides in the opening minute of the restart but five minutes later Ciaran Brady broke through and rifled home goal number two for Gowna, which was quickly followed up by points from the same player, Madden and Conor Brady to leave the upset within grasp at Crowe Park.

Sean Higgins and Stephen Murray reduced the town side’s deficit to three with eight minutes remaining but Timmy Fitzpatrick’s charges kept their foot on the throttle until the finish here.

Robbie Fitzpatrick and ex-Cavan minor star Madden rounded off the win with points that now pits them in a semi-final clash against Crosserlough whom also scored an upset against 2016 champions Ramor United yesterday evening.

That clash in Crosskeys finished 2-17 to 2-14 in favour of the Kilnaleck side after they’d trailed by three points at half-time.

Niall Murphy bagged goals in each half for Ramor and his second six minutes into the second-half looked to have them on their way but Crosserlough went on to outscore them by 1-9 to 0-6, claiming their berth in the last four.

On Saturday, Donal Keogan’s Castlerahan side made sure of a return to the semi-finals by handing Kingscourt Starts a 0-12 to 0-7 defeat in Mullagh.

Last year’s beaten finalists fell behind to early points from Philip Tinnely, Robbie Rowntree and Joe Dillon but soon asserted their dominance by rattling off points via Cormac Daly, Shane McSweeney (2) and Stephen Cooney to lead by 0-6 to 0-4 at the half.

Two points from talisman Cian Mackey (one a free) saw the Ballyjamesduff men with one foot in the semis and despite Shane Duffy pulling one back for the Stars, the men donned in maroon saw out victory with comfort after further singles from Mackey, David Wright and Enda Flanagan (2).

In Killygarry, there was no separating Lacken and Lavey as Karl Duke’s late, late point snatched a second bite at the cherry for the latter.

The teams were level five times during the first-half as Shane Tierney’s point for the New Inns outfit sent them in at half-time on 0-6 each.

James Galligan and Paul Leddy (2) fired scores early in the restart that saw Lacken finally open up a margin but Lavey were never willing to throw in the towel and squared things up thanks to white flags by Darren Jordan, the electric Tierney and Chris Conroy (free).

Lacken looked like nicking it after Finbar O’Reilly’s free sailed between Lavey’s posts on 58 minutes but Duke came up with the late intervention to force a replay.

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