Kingscourt 0-10 Killygarry 0-13
In the space of two short weeks, the Seniors season has taken an almighty slump following a 0-13 to 0-10 defeat to Killygarry on Sunday in Breffin that saw them knocked out of this year’s senior championship.
The huge gap between Division Two football and Senior Championship was quite apparent and Kingscourt were left regretting another disappointing start that saw them trail 0-5 to 0-0 after the first quarter. Despite that a great second quarter in which Darragh Gunne was to the fore, saw us get back into the match. Further scores from Mark McKeownand a Ryan McCormack free actually saw us lead 0-6 to 0-5 at halftime. However our failure to capitalise on any of the three great goal chances would prove very costly at the end.
Once again a sluggish start to a half saw Killygarry regain control and while a super Gunne free levelled things at 0-7 each, Killygarry quickly asserted their control and lead 0-11 to 0-7 with 15 minutes left. Similar to the first half, Kingscourt rallied and Alan Clarke engineered some attacks from the back. Further scores from Gunne and Colm Smith narrowed the gap to just one with five minutes remianing.
As word came thru on the PA of Denn’s comeback victory over Lacken, the Stars knew a victory was required but it was Killygarry who added two further scores. At the final whistle it was disappointment for the team who’s season has started to fall away very quickly.
Despite finishing third in the group, we still fall into a relegation play-off , and will play the losers of Mullahoran/Ballinagh in the first round of this. Therefore, it will mean players and management needing to quickly re-group and ensure relegation does not become a real prospect. With promotion not 100% guaranteed and relegation now needed to be fought off, it will be a fraught end to a season that had been going so well.
TEAM: R. Tinnelly, P Farrelly, T Wakely, S Gray, B Tully, A Clarke, K McCabe, C Smith (0-1) , N McCabe, P Smith (M Malone), B Reilly, P Tinnelly, D Gunne (0-6, 1f), R McCormack (0-1f) (J McMahon), M McKeown (0-2)
