Kildress kill off Clogher in last quarter

  Kildress 1-13  Clogher 1-8

KILDRESS applied the afterburners in the final 15 minutes to claim two precious league points in Division Two at home to Clogher on Friday night.

They aren’t quite out of the woods just yet with four rounds of action to be rattled off in the next fortnight, but the Wolfe Tones took a significant step towards survival with a deserved – if not entirely straightforward – victory over fellow strugglers Clogher.

With 15 minutes remaining, Clogher looked the more likely. They held a 1-7 to 0-6 lead with Marc McConnell working his magic up front while Kildress were somewhat off-colour, racking up wides and coughing up possession on their forays forward.

However, there was no disguising the importance of this contest with both teams badly in need of a win, and Kildress belatedly kicked into gear and outscored their opponents by 1-7 to 0-1 in the final quarter.

The catalyst for their late scoring blitz was a superbly taken goal from their young full-forward Shea Quinn, who unleashed an unstoppable shot to the roof of the net in the 49th minute.

Involved in the build up was their vastly experienced captain Philip Lennon, who played in a more advanced position in the second-half and provided invaluable leadership during their late push, while others that stepped up the plate included Corey and Callum Holland and Niall Connolly, all of whom did sterling work in preventing Clogher from regaining a foothold in the game. A nod as well to substitute Shea Murphy, who steered over the final two points of the game in injury time.

Opponents Clogher enjoyed a productive start to proceedings, moving into a 0-3 to no score lead in the opening ten minutes. Finbar McCaughey, Sean Byrne and the in-form Cillian Barkey found the target early on, while Kildress eventually got the show on the road with a fine point from Aidan McAleer.

Clogher looked the more threatening outfit having been afforded too much space at the back, spraying the ball around at their leisure and establishing a 0-5 to 0-2 lead when they delivered an immediate riposte to a Kildress score via midfielder Sean Bogue.

But the momentum swung in Kildress’ favour in the final ten minutes of the half and at the heart of their efforts was rampaging wing-back Callum Holland.

He scored a point of his own after an incisive run, he could’ve had another only his fisted effort dropped into the net and he was then crudely fouled on the edge of the square with Shea Quinn popping over the resulting free – all in the space of about five minutes or so.

Holland was wreaking havoc, but arguably Kildress should’ve made more of their purple patch as the sides went into the second-half with five points each to show for their efforts.

The Wolfe Tones got the first score of the second-half with Cormac Loughran finding his range, but they floundered for a good ten minutes with Clogher assuming control of the contest.

Sandwiched in between points from Jamie Callaghan and Finbar McCaughey was a goal from Cillian Barkey, smashing the ball to the net from close range after some seriously good work from Marc McConnell.

Clogher led by 1-7 to 0-6 with 46 minutes on the clock – a sizeable enough lead given Kildress were struggling to find any sort of rhythm up front – but the game turned on its head for the remainder of the contest, Kildress’ revival sparked by an eye-catching goal from forward
Shea Quinn.

Quinn had taken a while to come to the party having missed a scattering of wides, but you have to credit his resilience as he finished his day’s work with 1-3 to his name, and he could’ve had a second goal shortly after his first only for a smart save from Clogher goalkeeper Rory McElroy.

But that was symptomatic of the fact that Kildress had seized control of proceedings, upping the tempo in every sector of the pitch, forcing turnovers and moving ahead on the scoreboard with fine points from Quinn (twice), Lennon and Caolan McNamee.

All Clogher could muster in the same period was a point from Barkey, and while they kept plugging away in search of a late reprieve, that left space at the back and Kildress applied the coup de grace with the final two points  from Shea Murphy.

The Scorers
Kildress
Shea Quinn (1-3, 1 ‘45’, 1f), Shea Murphy, Philip Lennon and Caolan McNamee (0-2 each), Cormac Loughran, Callum Holland Aidan McAleer and Corey Holland (0-1 each)
Clogher
Cillian Barkey (1-3), Sean Byrne and Finbar McCaughey (0-2 each), Jamie Callaghan (0-1)