Denn outshine the Stars
Denn 2-11
Kingscourt 1-10
All good things come to an end and after eleven victories and one draw in competitive matches, Kingscourt suffered their first defeat of the year as Denn gained a deserved four point victory in Virginia on Saturday evening.
While the game was scheduled to start for 7pm, it was a quarter past before Kingscourt turned up. Sadly Denn hadn’t waited and were already 1-5 to 0-0 ahead.
Former county man, Hubert Smith, was at the heartbeat of the Denn start and opened his account after two minutes, turning his marker Brendan Corcoran to cut inside from the left and curl over.
Next, he added another good curling effort from distance while under pressure from Kingscourt’s defence before turning ball winner to earn a free which Paul Donoghue converted, 13m out.
Already three down, things got even worse for Kingscourt in the seventh minute. A high ball in towards their goalmouth was broken down dangerously by Smith and with a Denn forward waiting to pounce on the breaking ball for a goal chance, wing-back Barry Tully was unfortunate to see his attempted interception fall over the goal-line.
Further misery followed for the Blues as keeper Ronan Tinnelly was adjudged to have handled on the ground allowing Darren Costello to convert an easy 13 metre free while a left-footed strike from Donoghue gave Denn an eight point lead.
Finally in the 12th minute, Kingscourt registered their first score of the match, a pointed free by Darragh Gunne from the right side after Sean Óg Gargan had been fouled, 20m out.
Spurred on by this score, the Stars struck an unanswered 1-2 of their own. The goal was a stylishly taken effort from Gunne.
Thomas Malone picked out Colm Smith, who’d got himself in a good position in front of goals, with a neat pass and the midfielder, in turn, laid the ball off to the inrushing Gunne through the centre.
The corner-forward breezed by one attempted tackle to place the ball calmly into Brian Boylan’s bottom-right corner.
Wing-back Tully then capitalised on a loose pass within the Denn defence to run goalwards, drawing a foul.
Gunne converted the subsequent free from the right side and did likewise with another similar effort moments later.
Having let their eight point lead slip to just two points, Denn showed considerable composure to claim the last two points of the first half.
Again, Smith was to the fore. Firstly, he done well to contest a high ball in which resulted in a free that Darren Costello converted and then moments later he rose highest to tap down another high ball to the waiting Costello who curled over well.
The half-time scoreline was Denn 1-7, Kingscourt 1-3.
Denn opened the scoring in the second half through Smith, with the full-forward turning to fire over a fine snap-shot from distance.
Indiscipline in Denn’s defence allowed Ryan McCormack to tap over a free in front of the posts for a Kingscourt point in reply. Donoghue then converted a difficult free for Denn and while Kingscourt’s Gunne added another good free to his personal tally, it was the Maroons who seized the momentum to fire 1-2 without reply.
For the goal, recently introduced substitute Damien McCann broke the ball down to Colin Kiernan who running goal-wards fist passed over the last defender for Smith to turn inside again and fire clinically to the net.
Two fine frees from Costello, both 30m out near the left touchline, increased Denn’s lead further and although Kingscourt rallied somewhat and registered the last five points of the match with good efforts from play by McKeown and McCormack (2) coupled with two frees from Gunne, it wasn’t enough as Denn ran out winners on a scoreline of 2-11 to 1-10.
After a superb season so far, Kingscourt’s season all boils down to a showdown with Killygarry in two weeks. Win and were through, lose and were out. Draw, and well who knows. So, an intense two weeks await and Kingscourt will hope for a return of a few missing faces and the tightening up of a previously iron clad defence.
Denn: Brian Boylan; Eoin McPhillips, Thomas Corr, Adrian Cahill; Martin Cahill, David McKiernan, Aidan McKiernan; Padraig McGovern, Ronan Kiernan; Paul Donoghue(0-3), Martin McKiernan, Jerome Kiernan; Colin Kiernan, Hubert Smith(1-3), Darren Costello(0-5).
Subs used: Damien McCann, John Smith.
Kingscourt: Ronan Tinnelly; Patrick Farrelly, Brendan Corcoran, Shane Gray; Barry Tully, Alan Clarke, Keith McCabe; Neil McCabe, Colm Smith; Thomas Malone, Sean Óg Gargan, Philip Tinnelly; Darragh Gunne(1-6, 0-6f), Ryan McCormack(0-3), Mark McKeown(0-1).
Subs used: Philip Smith, Anthony Corcoran.
Referee: Gerry Sheridan
* Article used courtesy of The Cavan Post
