Despite one of their most spirited displays of the season, an under-strength Kildress were undone by an injury-time winner as they fell by 1-11 to 0-15 to table-toppers Eglish at Gortacladdy yesterday. Played in near-perfect conditions and with referee Gary Gormley letting the play go, this was a free-flowing and highly-entertaining game for the good crowd that attended. Kildress opened the scoring with an exceptional point from Matty McGuigan but six points from the near-flawless Peter McCann, well prompted by Colm Byrne, helped Eglish to a 0-9 to 0-4 half-time lead though Kildress’ case was not helped by six first-half wides. The second half saw the Tones really raise their game, led by the tireless Des Treacy who would finish the day with 1-5 and well driven forward by Stephen McGurk, the Connolly brothers, Marty Loughran, Marty Grimes, Francis Og Quinn, and Mickey Lennon. Three different times they pulled level with the St Patrick’s and Matthew Heagney’s injury time free looked to have clinched the draw but there was one play left in the game and it ended with the winner for Eglish, with no time left to even re-start the game. If ever there was a case of a good display getting no reward, this was it. Kildress now face into their final three games looking for the win that should guarantee safety in Division II for another year.

By mark Mon 24th Jul