Kinawley 2-12 St. Pat's 2-06

Kinawley got their league campaign off to a winning start on Friday night as they ran out six-point victors at home to St. Pat’s.

A Ruairi Corrigan goal just before half time put the Brian Borus in the driving seat at the interval, and they were able to keep the Donagh men at arms’ length throughout the second half to secure the points.

“It was good to get a winning start,” said Kinawley Manager Dom Corrigan. “We controlled the first 15 minutes and Donagh were on top after that, but our goal before half time was a big score in the game and that gave us a cushion that we were able to maintain in the second half.”

However, the downside of the game for Kinawley was an injury to Eoghan McManus, who is set for some time on the sidelines.

“We were pleased with the result but it was disappointing to lose Eoghan McManus to a shoulder injury, which will rule him out for the next few weeks,” added Corrigan.

However, he will he hoping to build on that win over St. Pat’s when they take on Devenish in Garrison this Friday night, although Corrigan is expecting a tough test.

“An away game against Devenish is always a tough challenge and we will need to step it up if we are to take the points out of it. We’ll take confidence though from our win last week and we’ll do our best to push on.”

Kinawley could not have wished for a better start to the game as they raced into a 1-02 to 0-00 advantage in the early stages.

Midfielder Eoghan McManus was very influential during the early exchanges, grabbing 1-01, while Ruairi Corrigan also tagged on a point.

However, McManus then picked up his shoulder injury, which forced him off, and St. Pat’s enjoyed something of a purple patch after this as they hit back with 1-03 on the bounce to take the lead.

Eimhin Curran slotted home the goal for the Donagh outfit and with Joe Cadden, Brian McDermott and Cameron McBrien rattling over scores, they moved one ahead.

Tomas Corrigan and Michael Montgomery then traded points but it was the home side who were to finish the half the stronger of the sides as they hit 1-03 before the break to go in with a five-point advantage.

Tomas Corrigan clipped over two points while Sean McManus also fired over, and Ruairi Corrigan hit the back of the net to leave it 2-06 to 1-04 at half time.

St. Pat’s registered the first score of the second half through Montgomery but with Aaron Tierney, Tomas Corrigan and Aaron O’Reilly on target for Kinawley, they further pushed their advantage out to seven points.

Back again though came the visitors as McDermott capitalised on a mix-up at the back to tuck to the net from close range as they reduced the arrears to four points.

But, Kinawley were able to push on in the closing stages and with Tomas Corrigan and Lorcan McKenna knocking over, they finished up 2-12 to 2-06 winners.

St. Pat’s Manager Paul Hasson was pleased with his side’s display despite the defeat, but he also knows that it is a results-based business as they get ready for a meeting with Erne Gaels this Friday night.

“We would be very happy with the performance but ultimately we didn’t get the two points.

“We now have another big game on Friday against Belleek and we want to try and build on last Friday night, but at the end of the day, the result is the key,” he said.