A fantastic, battling performance from Kingscourt finally overcome an impressive Lacken side in the first round of the Senior Football Championship in Virginia on Sunday afternoon. A cooly-taken Mark McKeown goal midways through the second half brought Kingscourt back level and they powered through Lacken in the final quarter for a well deserved two point victory.
Kingscourt opened brightly with Colm Smith claiming the ball at the throw in and charging up the field for a point. A Darragh Gunne free quickly followed to give the Stars a dream start. However, Lacken quickly got into things and ran up 1-4 without reply as they ran through the Stars defence and Michael Shanaghy rifled to the back of the net. Kingscourt appeared to be noticing the expecting step up between Division Two and Senior Championship a bit tough.
The Stars needed something to jump start things and Captain Alan Clarke duly delivered. As Lacken started another attack, Clarke spotted the danger and ran over, unleashing a shoulder that shook half the stand, let alone Kevin Shanahy. From this, Kingscourt attacked and the move resulted in a Philly Tinnelly point. More important than the point though was the significance; a call to arms to his teammates , and everyone of them stepped up to the plate.
Another Tinnelly point, came in between points from Sean Og Gargan and another Gunne score and at halftime while Kingscourt trailed by 1-5 to 0-6, they would have ran in quite satisfied, as after their mid-half slump they had recovered very well.
An early Sean Og point was cancelled out by two Lacken scores and the Stars were a goal behind. Then came the second turning point of the game, and Mark McKeown fielded a high ball in and wriggled round his man before calmly rolling the ball low into the far corner from an angle as tight as a Cavan man in a stereotyped Niall Tobin joke.
This levelled matters up but Kingscourt were in the ascendancy. It was now that Kingscourt’s strength in depth came to the fore. Halftime sub, Ryan McCormack gave Kingscourt the lead before newly introduced, couty minor captain, Barry Reilly, surged through the centre of the Lacken defence to put Kingscourt 1-10 to 1-8 clear.
Further Kingscourt subs brought new life to the attack but some poor finishing saw the gap remain at two and then cut to just one with a Finbarr O’Reilly point. As we entered injury time, McCormack gave the Stars a two point cushion and while Lacken pressed forward the Kingscourt defence comfortably dealt with things, even if those in the stand may not have been just as comfortable.
However, that’s why we are in the stand and the lads are on the pitch. At the end there was great celebrations on the sideline but notably on the pitch it was just, “job well done”. A super show from the side as the one worry going into this match was how the side woukld react to a challenge after not really receiving one in the league. Well they received one hell of a challenge and passed with flying colours.
Congrats to all connected to the Senior Panel on a super performance against an impressive Lacken side. Next up is Killygarry, scheduled for the 4/5 July.
