Cumann Pheadair Naofa 1-08 Cill Chua 0-13
An insipid lacklustre first 20 minutes cost Warrenpoint any chance of valuable league points in this encounter with Kilcoo in Páirc Liam Uí Ír on Friday night last. It wasn’t until the 22nd minute of play that The Point got their only score of the half and that was from a Ross Mc Garry free 30 yards from goal, by that stage Kilcoo were in the lead by six points. Kilcoo were moving freely and with little challenge and although they ended the half with 8 points they should have had more. Jermone Johnston usually an ace forward was having a bad night and landed a number of wides but younger brother Shelan upheld the family honour with three fine points in the first half. The Magpies should have had a goal when a poor clearance from Eoghan Byrne set Dillan Ward up for a one on one with the goalkeeper but his shot was wayward and landed in the side netting. Turnovers and poor passing and shooting combined with slow build ups negated any good work done by the Blues in the first half. Kilcoo scorers for the first half were Michael Rooney (2) Dillan Ward (1) Paul Devlin (1) Shelan Johnston (3) and Eugene Brannigan (1). When the halftime whistle sounded the home supporters had little expectation that the second half would bring any change to the situation.
Eoghan Byrne was replaced by Paul Traynor who took up position in the middle of the field and certainly added a bit of strength to the Warrenpoint effort in the second half. Jerome Johnston having found his form at half time was the first to score in the second half when he recovered a wayward Kilcoo shot from going over the end line and headed goalward from the right hand side of the dressing room goal punching the ball over the bar. Frees were exchanged Ross Mc Garry converting for the Point and Ryan Mc Avoy for Kilcoo. Fellow midfielder James Mc Clane scored a great point from 50 yards out to put the Magpies nine points up; 0-11 to 0-02.
Eoin Henry was alert and won a poor Kilcoo kick-out passed to Donagh Mc Aleenan who quickly passed to Ross Mc Garry who scored from play. By now Warrenpoint were competing for every ball and a bit more direct in their forward movement. Ross hit a great cross field free kick to Ruairí Mc Cormack who was hauled down and Mc Garry converted the free. He followed this up with a great kick off the ground from over 50 yards out to bring the score to 0-11 to 0-06. Jerome Johnston missed a free and Warrenpoint were definitely in the ascendancy. Ross hit a side line ball to Ryan Boyle who made a strong run gave a ‘one two’ to James Heaney, who had just replaced David Walker, Boyle flicked to Joe Magee who advanced on goal and send a perfect shot to the corner of the net, a nine point Kilcoo lead reduced to two points in a ten minute spell the seven or eight remaining minutes were going to be exciting.
Ross converted another free and the gap was down to one point, Anthony Morgan took a valuable point from play to restore Kilcoo’s two point lead. Ruairí Mc Cormack worked hard to take a fine score from 35 yard out and it looked as if Warrenpoint who were now the better team could go on and snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat.
Warrenpoint had their chance when the ball came to James Heaney he had Ruairí Mc Cormack free a few yards ahead to his left but chose to take the shot himself it was accurate but not strong enough and landed in the goalie’s hands the tide was turning back in Kilcoo’s favour.
Warrepoint made one last effort with Gary Boyle taking up position forty yards from the Kilcoo goal he bounced and toe tapped the ball while not making much ground and the referee blew for a foul. The ball was cleared up to the Warrenpoint half of the field and Kilkoo substitute Gerard Mc Avoy finished the scoring with a point. The match ended a two point victory for Kilcoo.
