Kildress put on their best display for quite some time earlier tonight to deliver a 1-17 to 1-7 win over Aghaloo, a team that had fairly consistently got the better of us over these past few years. Whilst Aghaloo too played well in an entertaining game, Kildress definitely deserved their victory, much of which was built on a powerful display at full-forward by Pauric Lagan who rattled up an eye-catching 1-5 from play over the hour. Aghaloo fashioned a couple of great goal chances of their own, but a mixture of exceptional last-ditch defending by Kildress and some sheer bad luck for the O’Neills saw The Tones survive these bits of pressure.
Kildress led by 1-9 to 1-5 at half-time, Pauric Lagan’s finely-taken goal having been almost immediately cancelled out by an Aghaloo penalty. The visitors cut their deficit to three just after half-time but that was as good as it got for them as Kildress outscored them from there to the finish by 0-8 to 0-1. Unlike last week’s game at Strabane Kildress never faltered in this one, maintaining a high-octane pace throughout. Dean McNally and Stephen McGurk were prominent in defence whilst Marty Loughran (0-1) persistently brought the play to Aghaloo. Conor McAleer was strong at midfield whilst in an all-round impressive forward line Pauric Lagan (1-5) had a stand-out game, closely followed by Matty McGuigan (0-6), Conor Quinn (0-2) and Stephen Loughran (0-1).
Cathal Bell refereed a free-flowing game very well.
Kildress: | Gerard Grimes | Aaron Loughran, Dean McNally, Tiernan McNamee | Jonny Connolly, Stephen McGurk, Marty Loughran (0-1) | Enda McAleer, Conor McAleer | Stephen Loughran (0-1), Des Treacy (0-1), Conor Quinn (0-2) | Marty Grimes (0-1), Pauric Lagan (1-5), Matty McGuigan (0-6), | Shea Loughran
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In the Reserves Kildress’ 8-23 to 1-4 victory told its own story and marked the biggest score by an adult Kildress team for some time. The game was never a contest with goals by Adam Connolly, Aidan McAleer, FrankMcGurk, Liam Gilligan, Olcan McCrory, Jack Loughran (2) and Ben Donnelly all coming at regular intervals, and never giving Aghaloo a chance to recover. Frank McGurk also collected a handful of points in a game that ultimately probably did little for either side.
