Great win for the Kilmacs in County Championship

Kilmacabea took on Fr O’Neill’s in the first round of the County Junior Football Championship in Kilmurry on Saturday 22nd 2018. The team got off to a slow start but settled quicker than their opponents, Damien Gore and Ian Jennings looking lively up top. By the end of the first quarter they led by 1-3 to 0-1, Ian Jennings finishing a beautiful length-of-the-field move after Matthew O’Neill had denied Fr O’Neill’s, and in truth should have been further ahead only for some poor shooting. Despite Daniel O’Donovan and Joseph Collins having dominant performances in the middle of the field, some sloppy passing and poor option-taking with the ball in hand led to Fr O’Neill’s coming back into the game strongly and by the short whistle the Kilmacs only led by 1-7 to 1-4.

It was a similar tale for the majority of the third quarter, both teams trading points in an open and keenly-contested game. Donncha McCarthy was very unlucky to see his goal-bound shot cannon off the crossbar and Ian Jennings was similarly unfortunate to see his rebound creep agonisingly wide of the post. By the end of the quarter Kilmacs led by 1-11 to 1-7 and it appeared to be set up for a very close finish. Excellent last-ditch defending kept the men from East Cork at bay. The turning point came when Timothy Nyhan, one of a raft of subs at the end of the third quarter, saw his shot for a point drop into the net. From that point on Kilmacs assumed complete control and a further major from Ger O’Donovan in the dying embers of the match put a final gloss on a comfortable yet hard-fought win. Congrats to the players and management and we await the quarter-final draw with great anticipation.

 

Scorers: Damien Gore 0-9, Ian Jennings 1-5, Ger O’Donovan 1-2, Timothy Nyhan 1-1, Daniel O’Donovan 0-1 (free), Colin McCarthy 0-1

Team: Matthew O’Neill; Declan O’Sullivan, Darren Whooley, Niall Hayes; Donncha McCarthy, Martin Collins, Sam O’Driscoll; Daniel O’Donovan, Joseph Collins; Clive Sweetnam, Diarmuid O’Callaghan, Dan Lynch; Donie O’Donovan, Damien Gore, Ian Jennings

Subs: Liam Thompson for Donie O’Donovan (‘39), Timothy Nyhan for Dan Lynch (‘39), Mark Jennings for Declan O’Sullivan (injury) (‘42), Ger O’Donovan for Joseph Collins (‘45), Colin McCarthy for Clive Sweetnam (‘47), Thomas Jennings for Sam O’Driscoll (injury) (‘50)