One minute left, two points up and you have a penalty........ Have you met Cahir McMonagle?

It's not rhetorical, it's the scenario that faced Steelstown Brian Ogs in injury time of Saturday's Intermediate Club Championship semi-final against Kerry club Na Gaeil at the Connacht Centre of Excellence. The O'Neill's was in the hands of Cahir McMonagle who had more than 20 minutes to decide while medics treated unfortunate Kerry midfielder Stefan Okunbor who had been injured in the incident that led to Ben McCarron winning the spot-kick.

When referee John Gilmartin signalled for the match to begin again, everyone in Bekan held their breath to see what McMonagle had decided. Well, every except his manager Hugh McGrath!

“Have you met Cahir?" laughed McGrath when quizzed about his instructions for the crucial kick., "It was never in doubt what Cahir was doing!

"I’ve always said that we’d rather have a go at winning something than trying not to lose it. For me taking the point was trying to seal, at worst, a draw. We wanted to win it and we knew if the penalty went in that that was the game over and nothing else mattered. We were fairly out on our feet at that stage too so you never know what’s going to happen.

"If you get a chance for a goal with a sub goalkeeper that’s just come in, then you have a go at it and no better man for the job than young McMonagle.”

Saturday's 2-06 to 0-07 victory set up next Sunday's All Ireland decider against Meath champions, Trim, who accounted for Roscommon's St. Faithleach's at the Downs on the same day and the Brian Ogs boss says it will be a proud day to be representing the county and the city at GAA headquarters

"“It’s hard to describe at the minute," he added, "The game itself, you’re on a high after that but I think when we’re sitting having our dinner in a while it will hit then – what we need to do and what we have just achieved for this group, for this club, and for the city as a whole.

"We’re very proud representatives of Derry but, even moreso, very proud representatives of the city. We don’t want the journey to end here. We want to have a real cut at it next week and see where we land.”

“(The game) was horrible. We made a lot of mistakes that we haven’t made in a very long time. There was a bit of nervousness but we made changes again with boys off the bench. Morgan Murray was really effective when he came in today, it was the winning of the game. He’s out winning ball and bringing others into the play.

"When you go down to 14 men and you bring a guy like that on with the speed and accuracy that he has, that’s what we’re about. We’ve 25/30 footballers there that will grace any intermediate team and hopefully, in future, a senior team.

“Trim are a really decent outfit. For us, we’re analyse and do the work but the turnaround is so quick that we’ll have no time to settle. We’ll try to get our own bodies right, put together some sort of a plan and be ready for the game. But if ever a group deserves to play at Croke Park, this is it, and if ever a group was suited to Croke Park, it’s this forward unit that we have and we hope they enjoy the open spaces.”

Ben McCarron hit 1-04 in a superb individual performance for Steelstown but the loss of influential corner-back Diarmuid Baker to a second yellow card on 39 minutes handed Na Gail a major boost early in the second half but McGrath was delighted at how his young side dug in the get the result.

“I was annoyed (at the sending off). I thought the first yellow was very harsh because the two of them were just jostling and the second one was just the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen – two boys going for a ball collide and then one gets a yellow card.

"Things happen in a game and referees are making split decisions that they pick up through a mass of bodies so for us it was really difficult at the time because Baker was playing really well and was a release valve for us but you’ve the likes of Neil Forester who could literally play anywhere and you’re able to pull him back in. Then you’ve two men in the middle in Shane (O’Connor) and Ryan (Devine) who are saying, ‘Right, that’s okay, we’re down to 14 but nothing’s getting past here’. Ten you throw in the likes of Kevin Lindsay, Orán Fox, who had a shaky enough start but grew into the game massively, and Eoghan Concannon who is just a Rolls Royce of a defender. When you have that in the mix it gives you a real good platform to drive from.

"Some of them will need a bit of care and attention over he next few days because that was tough, but we have to get our sights set on winning this. There’s no point getting to Croke Park and leaving it out there, you get to Croke Park and finish the job. That’s what our aim will be and that’s what we’ll work on all week.”