St. Patrick's 2-07 Devenish 1-09

St. Patrick's followed up their win against Roslea last week with a hard-fought victory over Devenish last Friday evening to make it two wins on the bounce and put them into second place in Division 1A going into the last round of fixtures.

Two goals from Brian McDermott in either half secured the one-point victory for Donagh.

The first half was a tight and even affair with the sides level on one point apiece after five minutes, with scores from Donagh’s Eimhin Curran and Devenish’s Joe O’Brien.

Dara Foster was to kick St. Pat's further in front, 0-03 to 0-02 after 20 minutes before McDermott pounced on a Devenish mistake to tap the ball home.

A long ball in was dropped by Thomas Treacy in the Devenish goal and McDermott was on hand to capitalise at the home side went in at the break 1-04 to 0-04 to the good.

The second half saw Devenish come out in a more determined mood and with scores from Joe and Chris O’Brien they cut into the St. Pat's lead.

Devenish went in front with just over 10 minutes to play when Jamie Flanagan got the ball 50 yards out and made a beeline for the goal before finding the net, 1-08 to 1-07.

With the visitors putting on the pressure, Donagh needed a response and they got it when Cameron McBrien played McDermott in one-on-one with Treacy and he made no mistake for the second time to out Donagh two in front, 2-07 to 1-08.

With time ticking on, Devenish did reduce the deficit to a single point thanks to a Joe O’Brien free but St. Pat's were able to hold on to their slender advantage with keeper Sean Montgomery making a great save late on to help his side secure the 2-07 to 1-09 win.

Donagh manager, Paul Hasson felt McDermott’s goals came at the right time for his side in what was a tight encounter.

“We battled very, very hard and the boys put in a mammoth effort and we got the scores at the right time. Call it luck or whatever you want but you have to be in the right place at the right time to get them.

“We improved again which is what we are asking them to do. Still, as everybody would say at this stage of the season, still too many unforced errors but we are working on that and we are minimising them when we are going on to the pitch to play.”

Looking ahead to the last game against Derrygonnelly, Hasson sees it as another chance for his side to test themselves: “We have to try and put our gameplan up to Derrygonnelly and worry about ourselves and what we can do against them.”

For Devenish, they face Derrylin in their final game of the Club Players’ Competition.