Derry SFC: Glen end wait for first title by dominating parish rivals Slaughtneil

Glen clinched their first Derry Senior Football title with a dominant 1-13 to 0-7 win over holders and parish rivals Slaughneil at Celtic Park.

The 112-year history of the Derry Championship had seen the Maghera club fail to win the John McLaughlin Cup but they righted that in emphatic fashion.

Three Ciaran McFaul points and a Danny Tallon goal on the stroke of half-time put them in control at 1-6 to 0-1 up.

Three Conor Glass points in the second period kept daylight between the sides.

A titanic battle was expected between Glen and a Slaughtneil side that had won five of the previous seven Derry titles but instead the Watty Graham's outfit were utterly dominant as the first-half performances of half-backs McFaul and Ethan Doherty helped them take complete control.

And the scenes of joy from the Glen faithful as they streamed out on to the pitch at full-time spoke of what the occasion meant to a club that has produced many great players through the years but had somehow failed to make a major impact in the Derry championship.

Slaughtneil owned possession for the opening five minutes of the contest as Glen pulled all their 15 men behind the ball but the Emmets could not find a route through towards goal.

In contrast, Glen corner-back and captain Connor Carville, whose 85-year-old grandfather Michael McKeefry is one of the club's trustees after a lifetime of service, burst directly through the middle of the pitch to fire over his side's first point in the sixth minute and in truth, the Watty Graham's never looked back thereafter.

A Tallon free quickly doubled Glen's advantage and the outstanding McFaul then strode forward before floating over a towering effort.

The same two men were on target again as Glen moved five ahead and they should have been even further in the clear when the water break was called as lively half-back Doherty fired wide from in front of the posts and Tallon then missed a straightforward free.

With Slaughtneil's dangerman Shane McGuigan having been totally bottled up in the opening quarter, his Derry team-mate Brendan Rogers tried to rally the holders by striding upfield from full-back to stroke over the Emmets' first point in the 17th minute.

But McFaul responded by scoring his third sensational point of the opening period to restore the five-point margin.

Glen seemed content with their advantage as they played keep ball for a couple of minutes but the last act of the first half saw them effectively put the match to bed as Tiarnan Flanagan's fisted pass over the top of the Slaughtneil defence was flicked on by midfielder Glass for Tallon in turn to fly kick the ball to the roof of the net.

Glass was wearing a mask to protect his broken nose and his two scores - after Slaughtneil's McGuigan had notched the first point after the resumption - helped Glen maintain a stranglehold on the contest.

The closest Slaughtneil got in the second period was seven in arrears at the water break as they hit three out of four scores - including two Christopher Bradley frees.

But the comeback was never on and Paul Gunning's free started a final quarter which saw Glen hitting four of the final six scores which included a goal chance for centre half-forward Jack Doherty as his shot skimmed over the crossbar.