Kildress and Killeeshil produced a gripping Semi-Final of the LCC GROUP Tyrone Junior Championship tonight in the perfect setting of Garvaghey with the Tones just edging a spectacular encounter by 2-13 to 1-13. Garvaghey’s new ‘Pitch 2’ and Referee Stephen Campbell contributed greatly to this game which attracted a fine crowd on a wet, wet night.
Ultimately Kildress just edged things but if the game had ended in a draw or if the St Mary’s late pressure had resulted in their grabbing the result, few could have complained after this thoroughly entertaining spectacle.
Kildress started well and led by two after ten minutes, but yet another of Killeeshil’s driving runs led to a well-taken goal that put the St Mary’s 1-2 to 0-3 ahead. That brought a fine reaction from Kildress however and despite some heroic work by Killeeshil goalkeeper Ciaran Reilly, Enda McAleer got the final touch to a bobbing ball for a goal that put The Tones back in front by 1-4 to 1-2. As the rain teemed down both sides went at it and reached half-time with Kildress ahead by 1-7 to 1-4.
The second half opened with Killeeshil, well driven on by Daniel Millar, Tomas Hoy and Pascal Donaghy, notching five of the first six points to retake the lead. Just when they needed it however, Kildress goaled again, this time Caolan McNamee’s delicate flick finishing off some fine play where Johnny Connolly had featured strongly. From there to the finish we had a rip-roaring affair, with Killeeshil coming back yet again to level things before Kildress drove on to score four of the last five points to move through to the LCC GROUP Junior Final. This was no easy seeing out of a game however as Killeeshil applied serious pressure and twice came close to getting match-defining goals.
After their slow start to the season, this was a very fulfilling result for Kildress and was won only by a very strong all-round team performance. Yet again Connor McAleer and Dean McNally were masterly in defence as were Aaron Loughran and Johnny Connolly, Des Treacy (0-1) and Pauric Lagan (0-2) lit up mid-field whilst up front Kildress had real cutting edges in Matty McGuigan (0-5), the tireless Stephen Loughran (0-2) and Adam Connolly (0-1).
Proud to be part of
