Kinawley 2-11 Belnaleck 1-11

Despite a dominant first-half performance which saw them lead by four points at the break, it was a fortuitous goal near the end of the game which ensured Kinawley made it five wins from five in Division One.

Belnaleck, who only managed two scores in the opening 30 minutes, rallied after half-time and were only trailing by one point when Lorcan McKenna’s free found the back of the Belnaleck net with a couple of minutes to go which sealed the win for Kinawley after an entertaining hour of football.

For Belnaleck’s Aidan McElroy, he felt the first-half performance left Belnaleck with a mountain to climb to get anything from the game but he was pleased with how they responded in the second half.

“We just didn’t perform in the first half and ended up leaving ourselves with too much to do. 

“We played well in the second half and conceded an unfortunate goal but Kinawley probably deserved to win on the night.”

A Sean McManus free opened the scoring for Kinawley but this was soon cancelled out by a Garvan Quigley score from play for the visitors.

But three scores in a row for Kinawley from Aaron O’Reilly, a McManus free and a glorious strike from defender Niall Bogue made it 0-04 to 0-01 with 10 minutes left to play in the half.

Bryan Owens got Belnaleck’s second and final score of the half from a free before late points from McKenna and McManus left it 0-06 to 0-02 at half-time.

The gap was out to six points at the start of the second half courtesy of points from Donal Owens, who raced in and fisted over the bar, and a McManus score.

But Belnaleck rallied and brought themselves to within a point as they hit 1-02 without reply.Bryan Owens was again on target before Glenn Treacy forced a turnover and after a good team move, he fired to the net and it was game on, 0-08 to 1-04.

But Kinawley regrouped and they hit their first goal of the game not long after when O’Reilly was played in by Owens and he fired past Ryan McNulty in the Belnaleck goal.

The sides traded scores after this before a series of unanswered points from the Leckers, brought it back to a single-point game with less than 10 minutes to play.

Bryan Owens and Kane Connor were among the point scorers.

Tom Keenan found space to fire over and increased the Kinawley lead but another Owens score, as well as a point from Peter Monaghan, again brought Belnaleck back to within one point.

With minutes remaining, Kinawley were awarded a free out on the right and McKenna placed the ball on the ground to strike it.His shot evaded everybody before nestling in the top corner of the net to make it 2-11 to 1-10.

Quigley landed a 45 for Belanleck to leave a goal between the sides but it was to be the last action of the game as Kinawley remain unbeaten and top of Division One.

Next up for Kinawley is a trip to Ederney while Belnaleck face the other unbeaten side in the division, Erne Gaels on Friday.