Kingscourt 1-11 Redbridge 2-13
Redbridge (Redhills and Butlersbridge) comfortably saw of a spirited Kingscourt side in what was a high-scoring contest last Friday night. The amalgamated side played a strong running game and always looked like outscoring their opponents with their menacing attack.
Kingscourt found themselves ten points down with five minutes left but, to their credit, they never gave up and battled back. However, it was a case of too little too late as Redbridge were already out of sight. Despite the poor weather conditions both teams still managed to play attractive free flowing football and the visitors edged the opening 20 minutes by 0-7 to 0-4.
Redbridge’s Packie Leddy was on good form with the boot and he was responsible for five of those, while two Barry Reilly frees and one apiece from Colm Smith and Daryl Martin kept Kingscourt within touching distance. In the 24th minute of the half Redbridge struck the first goal, when Fergal Flanagan’s attempted point fortuitously bounced into the top corner.
The home side hit back with a well taken point from Shane Gray and would have goaled themselves only for a good save from James Brady to deny Phil Tinnelly. The wing-forward managed to gather the rebound though to fist over the bar and Reilly added another free to close the gap to three. Redbridge’s Martin Fitzpatrick notched the last score of the half with a punched effort to leave the scoreboard showing 1-08 to 0-06 in favour of Redbridge at the break.
Kingscourt keeper Mark Cunningham pulled off a terrific double stop in the first minute of the second half and they went straight down the other end and pointed through Martin. However, Oisin Minnagh immediately cancelled that out after a powerful run through the heart of the Kingscourt defence.
Daryl Martin was starting to come into the game more and after he set-up Tinnelly for a point he jinked past his man in the 11th minute and curled over to cut the gap to three once more. Unfortunately that was as close as they would come as Redbridge really kicked on and scored 1-04 without reply.
Kingscourt’s defence looked vulnerable at times and county man Rory Dunne exploited that when he charged through the middle unopposed. His pass found it’s way to Joe Callan and the full-forward gave Cunningham no chance with a powerful effort. Mark Kelly pointed on the turn in the 15th minute after Kingscourt gave the ball away in defence and Flanagan and Leddy added two more.
When Dunne strolled through the heart of the defence again in the 25th minute to point it looked like Kingscourt had thrown in the towel. However in fairness to them they upped their performance in the last five minutes – keeping Redbridge scoreless and halving the deficit to five. Martin was the main threat for the Stars and he was responsible for the 1-02 they got in the closing stages.
Tinnelly was heavily involved in a patient build-up for the first and he eventually offloaded to Martin, who slotted his third of the evening. In injury time he turned his man inside-out before scoring a terrific goal and added a free soon after to end the game on a high for Kingscourt in what was an otherwise forgettable evening for them.
Kingscourt: Mark Cunningham, Thomas Rogers, Padraig Burns, Aidan Smith, Tom Tully, Shane Gray (0-1), Barry Tully, Colm Smith (0-1), Ciaran Smith, James Cunningham, Joe Farrelly, Philip Tinnelly (0-2), Rory O’Rourke, Barry Reilly (0-3, 2f), Daryl Martin (1-4, 2f)
Redbridge: James Brady, Ciaran Greenan, Ciaran Smith, Paddy Flynn, Gary Kelly, Oisin Minnagh (0-1), Turlough Mooney, Rory Dunne (0-1), Martin Walsh, Diarmuid Mulvey, Packie Leddy (0-6, 3f), Fergal Flanagan (1-1), Mark Kelly (0-1), Joe Callan (1-1), Martin Fitzpatrick (0-2)
Match Report courtesy of Alan O’Mara.
P.S. Apologies for the photo quality, the players adapted to the conditions better than I did….
