Club Notes 26-08-2021: Defeat in 1st round of JAFC
The Junior A Footballers recent bad form continued last Friday night as they were defeated by St Marys by a single point in the opening round of the Carbery JAFC played in Dunmanway.
Having not played up to their potential in the opening half and trailing by five points at the half time interval, it looked like the game was slipping away from the lads, and having lost Richie O Sullivan to injury late in the half it looked a very tough ask. But a few positional changes and the introduction of Ian Jennings seemed to galvanise the Kilmac lads. The opening minutes of the second half was all Kilmacs with 3 early scores from Dan Lynch, Damien Gore and Ian Jennings bringing the deficit back to a manageable two points. A St Marys free then stretched their lead back out to three points, before a sweeping move saw Ian field a ball and lay off a great ball to Damien who rocketed a shot into the top corner of the St Marys net. When Damien pointed two minutes later to push the Kilmacs one clear, it looked like their would be only one winner with Martin Collins and Daniel O Donovan dominating the midfield battle. The loss of our captain Joe Collins to a second yellow card was a blow and the following ten minutes was very scrappy as the Ballineen men shot some poor wides. Eventually they found their range and levelled the game with a little over ten minutes to go. A brillant break away score by Donnacha McCarthy was cancelled out another St Marys point and the game looked likely to go to extra time. Being down to 13 men the Kilmacs dug in and were defending for their lives, hoping to win the ball back and break away to try and nick the game away.
But the drama wasnt over as a number of injuries and subs meant that there would be a good amount of additional time added on. It was the Kilmacs that broke away two minutes into injury time and again it was the impressive Gore that kicked the score to push us one in front. Another breakaway and foul on Ian Jennings saw Daniel O Donovan tap over a free in the fifth minute to stretched the lead to two points and it looked like the game was one. A free given for a foul on Damien, sparked a bit of pushing and shoving by the sideline and when the dust had settled another red card was shown to a Kilmac sub for an incident in front of the dugout. The ref decided to add on another two minutes, and with the final play of the game, a St Marys player was fouled just inside the square and the referee signalled a penalty kick. Despite the efforts of Kilmac keeper Matthew O Neill the ball was planted into the back of the net and the final whistle blew to see St Marys snatch a one point victory. Full time score: Kilmacabea 1-12 St Marys 2-10
Despite this defeat the second half showed enough that this Kilmac team aren’t finished yet and will get a second chance in the backdoor where they will take on St Colums from Kealkil.
