The finals of both the Reserve Football Cup and Reserve Football Shield are down for decision tonight and both games have the potential to provide an exciting hours football and both look hard to call.

Reserve Football Cup Final (Dunsilly) 7-00pm

Erin’s Own Cargin v St. Gall’s

Erin’s Own Cargin and St. Gall’s have been the two outstanding sides in this year’s Reserve Cup competition and both have produced performances that have made the public sit up and take notice and tonight’s final at Dunsilly should attract a bumper crowd from these hotbeds of Gaelic Football.

Rossa 2-7 St Gall’s 2-12

St Gall’s booked their place in the Reserve Football final when they travelled to Rossa and beat the Shaw’s Road side by 2-17 to 2-12 two weeks ago. The sides were level at half time but a goal three minutes into the second half from Michael Pollock gave the Milltown Row men the boost they needed and they pushed on to seal a final meeting with Cargin.

St. Gall’s have rolled back the years and have included quite a number of their All Ireland Club Championship side of 2010 vin their side and 13 years on from that famous victory the class of 2010 are still performing at a high level.

Colin Brady, Anto Healey, Andrew McClean, Terry O’Neill, Aodhan Gallagher, Sean Kelly, Kevin Niblock and Kieran McGourty were all part of that excellent side and were in action against Rossa while Michael Pollock, who joined the club after 2010 is another performing at a very high level

St. Gall’s v Rossa: Ciaran Og O’Mullan, Michael Hopkins, Colin Brady, Oisin Kelly, Anthony Healy, Andrew McClean, Mark Kelly, Aodhan Gallagher, John McCullough, Niall Fallon, Terry O’Neill, Daniel O’Muirigh, Sean Kelly, Kevin Niblock, Kieran McGourty.

Erin’s Own Cargin 1-17 Kickham’s Creggan 0-06

A Benen Kelly goal, ten minutes into the second half sealed the deal and ensured Cargin a place in the final of the Reserve Cup at the expense of their near neighbours and close rivals Kickham’s Creggan in the second semi-final.

The Toome men made the better start and with Kieran Close sharp in front of the posts and the dominance of Charlie McCann and Odhran Molloy in the middle were quickly into their stride.

Kelly at centre-half was excellent for the Toome side which is an excellent blend of youth with keeper Shea Laverty, Paudie McLaughlin and Tom Shivers amongst the youngsters who have dipped their toes in senior football this year.

Ronan Devlin, Fergal Johnston, Enda McGroggan and the evergreen Ciaran Close add a wee bit of experience to a very fit and mobile Cargin side while Senior keeper, John McNabb can provide a serious scoring threat up front if called upon.

Cargin v Creggan: Shea Laverty, Sean og Quinn, Conan Johnston, Hugh O’ Donnell, Paudie Mc Laughlin (0-01),Benen Kelly (1-03), Ronan Devlin, Odhran Molloy, Charlie Mc Cann, Fergal Johnston (0-03), Brendan Laverty, Kieran Close (0-04), Enda Mc Grogan, Tom Shivers (0-04),

Subs: John Mc Nabb (0-03), PJ Quinn, C Scullion, Kyle Johnston, Diarmuid Quinn

I would expect this one to be mighty close but the greater pace of the Erin’s Own should be enough to see them take the title.

Senior Reserve Football Shield Final (Portglenone 8-00pm)

Con Magee’s Glenravel v Dunloy

This Reserve Shield final sees Cuchullian’s Dunloy face neighbours Con Magee’s Glenravel at Portglenone and is again likely to attract a good crowd to Kelly Park. Both sides impressed in their respective semi-finals with Glenravel’s win over Aldergrove in Crumlin certainly raising a few eyebrows.

Dunloy’s win over Ardoyne at Pearse Park was much tighter but they were in control for long periods and emerged five point winners in the end.

Reserve Shield semi-final

Aldergrove 0-04   Glenravel 1-14

Glenravel’s second string suffered only two defeats in their league campaign, both to St. James’ but the Con Magee’s travelled to Crumlin and avenged those defeats in the semi-final of the Reserve Football Shield.

Aldergrove’s only point in the first half came in the fifth minute, and in fact it would take them another thirty five minutes before they were able to add to that total by which time their opponents were out of sight. The Con Magee’s held a five points to one point lead at half time and Aldergrove would have needed a good start to the second half but four points on the bounce in the opening ten minutes saw Glenravel lead nine points to one before pushing on to win convincingly.

Glenravel were dominating all over the pitch and the introduction of Sean McKay, who goaled soon after his introduction, to put the match out of reach of their opponents. Sean Patrick Fay would put over the Aldergrove third point with nine minutes of the game remaining, and the final two scores of the game came from Cormac McKeown from Glenravel to leave the final score, 1-14 to 0-04 in favour of the Glensmen.

Con Magee’s v Aldergrove: Jude Scullion, Adam Campbell, Chris Laverty, Conor McQuillan, Joe Martin, Aidan McKenna, Declan McAuley, Martin McCarry, Senan Black, Cormac McKeown, Daniel McQuillan, Conleth O’Loan, Sean Paul McKenna, Darragh Donaghy, Aidan O’Donnell.

SUBS – Eamon Ward, Sean McKay, Alex Davis, Adam-james Asher, Joe Scullion, Ethan McNeill, Fiontann Hodgson, Fergus Donaghy, Shea O’Brien

Reserve Football Shield semi-final

Dunloy 2-13 Ardoyne 2-8

The other Reserve Football Shield semi-final saw Dunloy face Kickham’s Ardoyne at Pearse Park and the home side certainly didn’t get it all their own way. . Dunloy’s lead was reduced to two points at one stage, but the home team were determined to take the spoils from this game and they dominated an exciting conclusion as they slotted over a further three points to take the victory by five.

Michael Smith was Dunloy’s top scorer on the night and the side contains quite a number of players who have featured in the latter stages of this competition before.

Chris Logan, Ciaran McQuillan, Kevin McQuillan, Barry Scott, Karl Fitzpatrick, Anthony Smith and Declan McGarry are likely to lead the Dunloy charge in Portglenone

Dunloy 1. Chris Logan 2. Daniel Dixon 3. Séanna Martin Ryan 4. Oisin McErlane 5. Cathair McCloskey 6. Ciaran McQuillan 7. Barry Scott (0-1) 8. Eoghan McGrath (0-1) 9. Karl Fitzpatrick 10. Seanie McAleese (0-1) 11. Anthony Smith ((0-2) 12. Rory Smith 13. Barry McCloskey (0-2) 14. Michael Smith 0-5) 15. Declan McGarry (2-1) 16. DJ McKendry 17. Ryan McFarlane 18. Christopher McMahon

Again this one looks difficult to predict but their greater experience at this level may just be enough to see Cuchullian’s edge what should be a great final but Glenravel will be buoyed by that impressive win over Aldergrove.