An injury-weakened Kildress were always on the back foot at Eglish today and had the added misfortune to come up against a team which in the first half simply didn’t know how to miss. Apart from a few heroic Kildress block-downs, Eglish’s first 11 attempts at scoring, from all distances and all angles, all sailed over the bar in a spectacular showing of accuracy. They kicked just one first-half wide and that epic scoring just left The Tones’ young team with too much to do.
Playing into a strong wind, Kildress trailed by seven before Des Treacy got their opening point and by half-time found themselves in a difficult position, behind by 0-13 to 0-5, Enda McAleer and Matty McGuigan adding to two more Des Treacy points. With the wind now behind them they found life a bit easier in the second half but Colm Loughran’s late goal came just too late to put any real pressure on a strong and fast-moving Eglish team which won out by 1-17 to 1-10. Despite all, Kildress heads never dropped and they had good performers in Gerard Grimes, Callum Holland, the McAleer brothers (before they too were lost to injury), the evergreen Des Treacy (0-5), Adam Connolly and Marty McGurk (0-2). Referee Cathal Bell was as good a performer as was on the field, contributing well to a free-moving and entertaining hour’s football.
