St Pat's 1-09 Kinawley 2-13

Kinawley ensured that they will enter SFL Division One with a point on the board following their victory over St. Pat’s in Donagh on Friday night.

Dom Corrigan’s charges had come flying out of the blocks as they raced into a 0-07 to 0-01 lead by the end of the first quarter but St Pat’s responded well and by the interval they were back on level terms.

However, a Ciaran Breen goal helped the Brian Borus get a grip on matters again after the break and with teenager Tiarnan McKenna coming off the bench to hit 1-03, the away side went on to run out seven point victors.

“We’re pleased to take a point into the senior league and even more than that we are pleased that a lot of players have got game time which is important going into the league. For us, with so many front line players away travelling it was very important to have that run of games to try out players and the like of Fionn Gilheaney, Caolan Brennan and Tiernan McKenna have all done well and they wil be looking now to make their mark in the senior league when it gets underway,” said Corrigan.

Kinawley made the ideal start to the game as they took control all over the park from the outset and with Ciaran Breen, Paddy McGovern, Anthony Anderson, Sean McManus and Aichlinn O’Cathain all landing points they eased their way into a 0-07 to 0-01 advantage.

However, if they thought they were going to have things all their own way they soon realised that would not be the case as the Donagh side responded in the second quarter, fired on by a Brian McDermott goal in the 15th minute.

St Pat’s went on to dictate things after that and McDermott andTiarnan Wray clipped over points.

Shaun Doherty though landed a point on the stroke of half time for the Brian Borus to leave it level at half time , 1-05 to 0-08.

A Wray point nudged St Pat’s in front on the resumption but Kinawley hit back and the critical score of the contest arrived from Breen who slotted to the net after good work by McGovern and Colman Corrigan.

A brace of points from McGovern and McKenna then pushed further ahead with McKenna making a valuable contribution to his side’s win as he hit 1-03, including 1-02 from play.

Wray did reply with scores for the Donagh side Kinawley were able to see the game out from there and with that sealing back to back wins they will now head into the league proper in a confident frame of mind.

St Pat’s manager Paul Hasson says the competition has helped them identify areas they need to imporve on moving into the league.

Now that the clubs players’ competition is over, on reflection it’s been very positive experience whilst not always getting the results we would have liked.

“However we have identified different areas that needs improvement so that’s our focus for the next couple of weeks until the league begins and I’m sure our squad will be ready for that challenge as well,” he said.