St Macartan's 1-12 Kinawley 1-06

Kinawley’s Ulster Senior Club Championship campaign ended on Sunday as they went down by six points to Tyrone champions St. Macartan’s in Augher.

This was a closer contest though than the scoreline suggests with the sides level late on only for the home outfit to rattle off an unanswered 1-03 late in the game to secure the victory and a place in the last four of this year’s provincial competition.

“They scored 1-03 without reply in the last 10 minutes which was the difference,” said Kinawley manager Mark Cunningham. “They are an experienced team and have been on the Senior Ulster Club circuit for well over a decade now. It has to be acknowledged they just managed the closing period of the game better than we did.”

However, Cunningham was very proud of the efforts of his players and felt that the Brian Borus had some excellent performances on the day.

“It was never more than a one score game until their goal in injury time, so of course I’m proud of their efforts and we were in the contest all the way through.

“I thought we had some outstanding individual performances on the day, a lot of young girls who have a really bright future in the game,” he said.

And he believes that playing against this quality of opposition will only help the progress of the side.

“It will be an experience that the girls will most certainly benefit from. I know Fermanagh Ladies were playing at the Junior grade this season and will be again next year, so for all of the girls to have the opportunity to test themselves against players who have played at Senior inter-county level is an invaluable experience for their development and that’s the beauty of the provincial club championships.

“We would have liked another day out, but in sport you don’t always get what you want,” he added.

Kinawley had made a great start to the game when Roisin O’Reilly hit the back of the net early on to put the Fermanagh champions into a 1-00 to 0-01 advantage.

St. Macartan’s though responded and points from Chloe McCaffrey brought them back to level terms.

The first half was well contested and Corinne Breen edged Kinawley back ahead before the home side equalised through McCaffrey but a Gemma McCaffrey point for Kinawley left the Brian Borus a point to the good at the interval, 1-02 to 0-04.

St. Macartans though made a strong start to the second half as they landed four points in a row with Colleen McQuaid and Niamh McGirr among the scores, to move three clear and Cunningham felt that Kinawley never really got their game going in the second half.

“I don’t think we really played our own game in that second half, there were a lot of opportunities for us that we didn’t see. Maybe the occasion caused that, perhaps a whole lot of factors at play, but we just weren’t as clear as what we should have been or what we have been,” he said.

Still, Kinawley responded and O’Reilly lofted over two points while Niamh McManus and Courteney Murphy were also on target to leave the game level at 1-06 to 0-09 moving into the final ten minutes.

However, it was St Macartans who were to finish the stronger of the teams with McGirr, McQuaid and Cathy Maguire tagging on points before McGirr hit a late goal to put an end to Kinawley’s chances as it finished 1-12 to 1-06.