‘Castle progress thanks to two late goals

Greencastle 2-11  Kildress 1-6

TWO late goals sealed a deserved victory for Greencastle in their Intermediate Championship opener against neighbours Kildress in Pomeroy on Sunday.

Greencastle were certainly good value for their win but the game hung in the balance until the closing minutes of the contest, Tiarnan Teague’s late goal finally opening up meaningful daylight between the teams.

They applied the coup de grace with the final kick of the game, Ryan Gumley showing no hesitation in sliding the ball into an empty net following a breakaway attack with Kildress all at sea, ensuring a quarter-final clash against Beragh in a fortnight’s time.

It was an impressive enough performance on the whole from Greencastle, who are bidding to get back to the senior ranks at the first time of asking, while Kildress can reflect on pride on how they’ve conducted themselves this season after the tragic death of their captain and leader Matty McGuigan.

Kildress struck three wides in the opening ten minutes but it wasn’t all their own doing as Greencastle’s last line of defence was in top form, exemplified by the efforts of Mark McNulty, Seamus Warnock and Ronan Hollywood while Conor Carson’s positional sense was excellent.

Greencastle earned a shot at a penalty in the eighth minute when Cahir McCullagh was dragged down, the same man stepping up to take the spot-kick but his effort was saved by Kildress net-minder Conor
McAleer.

The ‘Castle didn’t have to wait long to make some degree of amends, getting their first score of the day when Enda McKenna finished off a fine attacking move with Ryan Gumley and Sean Warnock heavily involved in the build-up, three men who all had fine games.

Warnock got his name on the scoresheet, landing a free, but Kildress were struggling to make in-roads down the other end and racked up a succession of wides until late in the half.

Tiarnan Teague made it 0-3 to no score in Greencastle’s favour with captain Miceal McCann lending the spadework before Kildress belatedly got their opening score in the 18th minute, a booming effort from Philip Lennon.

The Wolfe Tones added their second shortly afterwards, a brilliant score from distance by Corey Holland, negating the well-manned Greencastle rearguard on this occasion.

But Greencastle looked the more threatening outfit at this juncture and they tagged on a fourth point on a dreary afternoon weather-wise, Cahir McCullagh twisting inside Tiárnan McNamee before blazing over with the outside of his boot.

Kildress reduced the margin with Corey Holland’s second of the day, but Greencastle still looked the more threatening outfit, even if some of their attacks were bottled up or went awry due to slightly miscued handpasses.

The direct running of Sean Warnock was proving hard to handle though, and did extremely well to win a free converted by McCullagh to open up a 0-5 to 0-3 lead at the half-time interval.

The opening exchanges of the second half were patchy at both ends but Sean Warnock broke the deadlock in the 38th minute with a superb point from way out.

Kildress corner forward Shea Quinn got a rare glimpse of open road as he almost stole in for goal only for the sterling work of his man-marker Mark McNulty.

Shea made no mistake from the resulting ’45’, though.

Greencastle manufactured a goal chance of their own but Dan Tuohey’s shot skirted across the face of goal and wide.

They moved into a 0-7 to 0-4 lead, however, when Conor Carson found the target from a tricky angle. Kildress hit back with a Caolan McNamee free but the hard-working Carson weighed in with another to restore their three-point cushion.

Their lead was snuffed out in one fell swoop, however, and a clever pass was dinked through to the on-rushing Shea Quinn who held his composure with only the goalie to beat.

Greencastle needed a response and they got one from the influential Enda McKenna, his second of the day, nudging his side into a 0-9 to 1-5 lead with ten minutes remaining.

Greencastle were showing adventure and tagged on another from Sean Conneely this time with gaps opening in the Kildress defence, but it was by no means over and Shea Quinn, having a fine second-half, won and converted a free to leave only a point between the teams with 57 minutes gone.

Greencastle midfielder Enda Clarke showed great leadership in the closing stages with a series of important plays, and they came inches away from rattling the net when Cahir McCullagh’s shot went narrowly wide after a superb ball from Sean Warnock.

Then came the decisive moment. Greencastle went on the prowl forward, Enda McKenna slipping the ball through to Tiarnan Teague, who could easily have elected to take his point but he went for broke with a rocket of a shot that ended up in the top-left hand corner of the net, his sense of adventure rewarded with the decisive score of the game.

Greencastle now led by four as the clock ticked into injury time and they added another, a Sean Warnock free with the game slipping away from Kildress.

Kildress went in search of a goal but it left them exposed at the back and Greencastle took full advantage with the final play of the game with their goalkeeper far from goal. Mark Carson played the ball to Ryan Gumley and seconds later he had the ball in the back of an empty net, and that was very much that.