Class is always class and Kildress felt the full force of it today when a stellar performance from Sean Warnock, only partly represented by his personal tally of 1-7, helped drive Greencastle to a deserved 3-12 to 1-7 victory at Gortacladdy. Throw into the mix a 1-1 scored with his first two touches by the also-returning John McCullagh and Kildress, game as they were but without players of that calibre, struggled accordingly.
Philip Lennon’s point was the game’s first score and two perfectly-struck long-range frees from Pauric Lagan helped the Tones to a 0-5 each half-time score, though Greencastle had several times torn right through the heart of the home defence and should have had at least two goals on the board by then. Any Kildress hopes that the St Patrick’s had missed their chance fell apart in the second half as they pushed Kildress aside, out-scoring them by 3-7 to 1-2. Sean Warnock just became more dominant as the game went on and a light, young Kildress team too often ran into trouble or just got bundled aside by their totally-committed visitors. Gerard Grimes and Conor McAleer were heroic in defence for The Tones and Marty Loughran, Matty McGuigan, Corey Holland, Adam Connolly and Enda McAleer tried manfully but this was one game Greencastle had clearly come to win and were not going to let slip. Martin Conroy refereed things very well.
