Senior Championship v Kingscourt

Barry Reilly struck for 1-5 to help see Kingscourt safely over the line against a gallant  Drumgoon tonight in the senior football championship.

Niall Lynch’s team were in authority for large parts of this Kingspan Breffni Park clash, with Drumgoon having to rely on the deadly accuracy of Keith Fannin to keep them in touch in the first-half before shipping two goals either side of half-time.

Those two strikes and the sending-off of defender Martin Fitzpatrick were mortal blows to the underdogs, whom were missing 7 of their normal line-up, including Cavan ace Conor Moynagh amongst others, as Kingscourt could afford to stay in second gear whilst tapping over points to see out the victory.

The Stars were also missing county personnel in the form of centre-back Padraig Faulkner, whom they will be ho ping to welcome back sooner rather than later as the gear up for a showdown with Ramor in the next round, with the winners facing Killygarry.

Kingscourt had their opener of this contest through Ryan Carey inside the first minute before Fannin announced his arrival in the game with a sweetly struck point 40 metres from the posts. Philip Tinnelly sped away from his man for the Stars’ second but Fannin kept Drumgoon on even terms heading towards the 15-minute mark with his first free of the evening.

Two frees from Reilly and an excellent Barry Tully point put the first bit of day light between the sides. Just as Meath border men looked to turn the screw though, their opponents hit some form before half-time which saw Fannin and Joshua Crowe landing overs which looked to have  Drumgoon in decent shape for the start of the second-half.

Injury-time is where the drama happens however, and when Drumgoon fouled in their own square Reilly was on hand to slam the resultant penalty into the roof of Corey Smith’s net.

It was a real dagger to Philip McDermott’s side, as was James Farrelly denying them the net early on in the restart, thwarting Crowe’s close range effort, as Kingscourt went on to dominate what was left of the game.

The contest was as good as over once Drumgoon were inflicted with a double blow in the space of four minutes which saw Tully and Tinnelly combine to release Christy McGowan for goal number two, after some early orchestration from Reilly, and corner-back Fitzpatrick receive his marching orders for lashing out at an opponent.

Reilly had the lead up to eight with 15 minutes still to go and Drumgoon had to rely on talisman Fannin’s free taking  and another single from Crowe to take some tarnish off the score-line for them.

Kingscourt, meanwhile, emptied their bench and had four scorers amongst their subs, doubling their counterparts’ personnel, with Reilly cracking another goal chance for them off the inside of the post before the final whistle.

Kingscourt: James Farrelly; Rory Sheridan, Shane Grey, Mark McGovern; Barry Tully (0-1), Alan Clarke, Philip Tinnelly (0-1); Terry Reilly (0-1), Ciaran Gorman; Ryan Carey (0-1, 1f), Christy McGowan (1-0), Paddy Farrelly; Peter Corrigan, Tomas Malone, Barry Reilly (1-5, 4f, 1 pen). Subs: Darragh Gunne (0-1) for T Malone (40), Keith McCabe (0-1) for P Tinnelly (43), Noel McIntyre for S Grey (48), Thomas Wakely (0-1) for R Carey (50), JP Reilly (0-1) for M McGovern (54), Philip Smith for C McGowan (55).

Drumgoon: Corey Smith; Paddy Smith, Ryan Craddock, Martin Fitzpatrick; Mark Murray, Shane McGorry, Dominic Donegan; Michael McDonald, Jim McNally; Pauric McGorry, Keith Fannin (0-6, 5f), Shane Smith; Joshua Crowe (0-2), Eddie Gaffney, Aogan Farrell. Subs: Henry Rayburn for D Donegan (HT), Simon Boyle for M Murray (50), Eamon McCluskey for S McGorry (57), Ian Craddock for M McDonald (57).

Ref: Martin Sexton (Cavan Gaels)