Kinawley 1-10 St Patrick’s 0-04

An improving Kinawley side moved into the top four in the Division One table with a comfortable victory over bottom of the table St Patrick’s on Sunday.

Mark Monaghan’s Brian Borus side held a three point lead at the break and the key moment of the contest arrived early in the second half as the home side struck for the only goal of the game which was finished by Tom Keenan.

It was not that long ago that Kinawley found themselves at the wrong end of the table but they have turned things around in recent weeks and now find themselves right back in the mix in the battle for a top four spot.

Monaghan feels that the fact that his side have been able to move up the table so quickly shows just how tight things are in Division One.

“There is not much between any of the teams and we have shown that a couple of wins can soon lift you up the table while a couple of losses could have you going the other way.

“From our point of view it has been about trying to get bodies back out on the pitch and we are just happy to have got another two points on the board,” he stated.

For St Pat’s the season continues to be a struggle with manager Sean Maguire again without a number of key personnel including Pat Cadden, Eamon Maguire and Paul Og O’Reilly.

The defeat leaves them four points adrift of second from bottom Irvinestown and six behind Teemore although the play off system means that even if they finish bottom they will still have a chance of survival.

“We will just continue to take it one game at a time and see how we get on but it is not easy when you are missing so many players because you can’t even prepare right for the games.

“If it gets to the point that we know we are going to be in the play off then we will have to make sure that we are ready for that,” he added.

And the games get no easier for the Donagh men this weekend as they face a trip to table toppers Ederney on Friday night.

“It’s a game against a team who are going well but we will just have to prepare as well as we can for it,” stated Maguire.

Kinawley had the better of things in the first half of this contest but they were wayward in front of the posts with a number of chances sailing wide of the target.

At the interval though they did hold a three point lead, 0-05 to 0-02, with Paul Breen and Sean McManus registering scores for the home side while Dara O’Reilly and Brian McDermott landed the St Pat’s points.

The game though would slip away from St Pat’s in the opening part of the second half as Kinawley pulled clear.

Donal Owens fired over a point before Keenan netted the only goal of the game.

Kinawley robbed the ball off the St Pat’s goalkeeper who had roamed out the pitch and the returning Ruairi Corrigan who had come on as a substitute teed up Keenan to slot to the net.

And from this Kinawley were to control things as Corrigan, McManus, Conor Murphy and Eoghan McManus tagged on points.

Thomas Cadden and Brian McDermott had scores for St Pat’s in the second half but they were always playing second fiddle as Kinawley eased to the points.

Next up for the Brian Borus is a clash with Devenish on Friday night and Monaghan is expecting a big test.

“Devenish had a big win over Derrygonnelly last weekend and we know it is going to be a tough game,” he said.