Kildress will be delighted with this marginal but for long seemingly totally unlikely 0-15 to 3-5 victory over a very well-supported Owen Roes at Gortacladdy. This was a hugely entertaining encounter, a game with a bit of everything – three brilliantly-finished Owen Roes goals, a red card for Kildress, a wonderful battle between Dean McNally and Cathal McShane, goal-mouth excitement, and a great comeback by Kildress – all well-refereed by Trillick’s John Joe McNabb.
Owen Roes’ return to Intermediate football was just about a minute old when, just like the Owen Roes of old, they created a fine goal. Even better was to come minutes later when a stunning strike put them 2-0 to 0-2 ahead and by half-time they led by 2-3 to 0-5, despite good displays from the Tones’ Adam Connolly (0-1), Matty McGuigan (0-3) Dean McNally and Des Treacy (0-1).
It seemed all up for Kildress early in the second half when poor defending let Owen Roes in for another very well-finished goal, giving the visitors a worthy seven-point lead. From there to the finish however Kildress would outscore them by 10 points to two, with the Tones’ management playing their hand very well. Substitute Philip Lennon hit five points (four frees), Marty McGurk chipped in with two fine efforts, Conor McAleer (0-2) and Johnny Connolly became growing influences as did Corey Holland (0-1) whilst Kildress men-of-the-match Adam Connolly and Dean McNally remained central to a last quarter drive which produced six points in a row and sealed the game for the Tones.
