Killeavy 1-12 Lissummon 0-03Killeavy faced Lissummon at the Memorial Park on Sunday afternoon, knowing two points were imperative, in this basement clash in division 2. Killeavy welcomed Barry Duffy back into the team at midfield, while Johnny McKevitt, fresh from his London championship adventure, took up his more familiar berth at centre-forward. Killeavy played against a sizeable breeze in the first half, and started really forcefully. Jmaes and Barry Duffy were in complete control of the middle of the field, and John McKevitt was linking play to the forwards beautifully. Adrian Doran scored a lovely point from play in the first minute. Gerard Byrne was also winning the battle with his marker in the corner, and with Barry Duffy playing some good ball into the forwards, only the breeze stopped Killeavy registering many more scores.Adrian Doran rattled over a close in free, before the left footed Gerard Byrne scored a much more difficult effort minutes later. Seamus Toner landed another good point to leave Killeavy well in the lead. In defence, Killeavy were holding the forwards of Lissummon in check, with the fullback line of Colm Byrne, Finbar Mallon and Liam O'Hare well on top. Indeed O'Hare was doing damage in midfield as his man came out from the forward line to play as an extra midfielder. Despite this dominance, Lissummon manged a brief flurry and scored two points in a minute as Killeavy gave away possession in an advanced position. Another free left them only a point down, but right on half time, Gerard Byrne rounded his man to fire a great shot that the goalkeeper saved well. Adrian Doran was on hand to bury the rebound to the top corner, and leave Killeavy well in control at the break. Half-Time:Killeavy 1-04 Lissummon 0-03The beginning of the second half saw Killeavy hit a couple of brillaint quick fire scores, the ball moving like lightning up the field to Adrian Doran, who was having a field day with the great supply of ball. He popped one over, before setting up Gareth O'Hare for another. Lissummon really lost heart at this point, and Killeavy could have completely ran away with the match. Adrian Doran scored three or four more on the spin, while he and Gary Reel missed good goal chances and Gareth O'Hare had a shot brilliantly saved. Raymond Teggart came on as a sub for the last few minutes and hit two great points from play to see out an easy and much required victory.Hopefully this will kickstart Killeavy's drive to get out of relegation trouble. There are now big games to come with Sarsfields and Carrickcruppen, and this was a good morale booster going into these matches. Barry Duffy, John McKevitt and Liam O'Hare provided some of many standout performances, and these are players who haven't featured for Killeavy this year. The team looked stronger than it has all year and the intelligent use of the ball was very encouraging. Full-Time:Killeavy 1-12 Lissummon 0-03Killeavy Team: B. Teggart, L. O'Hare, F. Mallon, C. Byrne, B. McKevitt, P. McArdle, G. Reel, J. Duffy, B. Duffy, P. Rocks(R. Teggart(0-2)40mins), J. McKevitt, S. Toner(0-1), G. Byrne(0-1, 1f), A. Doran(1-7, 3f), G. O'Hare(0-1). |