On Friday night Killeavy snr sponsored by Niall Clarke Oils, hosted St. Patrick’s in a top of the table clash. With a stiff breeze and a fairly slippy surface this game was never going to a classic.
The game started brightly with St Pats coming straight down the field and forcing killeavy to concede a 50 which Shane McKeever hit wide. Less than 2 mins later Paudie McDonnell put Cullyhanna ahead
with a well taken free. 2 pointed free's from Adrian Doran give killeavy the lead by the 6th minute when Anthony O’Hare and Paul Rocks were fouled around the 21 yard line by the defence. The game was
level just before the 9th minute when Cullyhanna’s Liam O’Hare scored a free from 40 yards. An injury on the St Pat's team seen their captain Shane McKeever replaced by Ciaran O’Neil. In the 14th minute
killeavy burst into life with when Adrian Doran found Gary Reel with a sublime pass who in turn fed the ball into the ever dangerous Anthony O’Hare , O’Hare’s shot was blocked but Doran who started the
move had forced his way into the goalmouth to smash the ball into the net. St Pats hit back with 2 pointed frees in the next 12 minutes to leave the game level with half time looming. Anthony O’Hare broke free
and was bearing down on goal when he went over in what looked like a certain penalty incident the ref Seamus O’Neill waved play on. O’Hare who suffered an ankle injury in the incident had to be replaced by Darren O’Hanlon.
Just before half time killeavy went behind when killeavy’s Liam O’Hare fouled his name sake on the St Pats team who dually pointed from 40 yards with O’Hare earning a yellow card for his troubles.
Half-Time:Killeavy 1-02 St. Patrick’s 0-06
The second half started slowly with both sides hitting wides. Cullyhanna went 2 ahead by the 40min. Gerald Byrne brought it back to 1 between the teams with a 14 yard
free. Stephen Malone replaced Darren O’Hanlon in the 45 min and went into full forward in a reshuffle of the killeavy team who by now were struggling badly in the
forward lines. Cullyhanna hit 2 more fine scores to increase their lead again. James Duffy who was winning most balls around the middle passed the ball forward to
Gerald Byrne’s who after a series of twists and turns got around Connor Casey to fire home a point from the acutest of angles undoubtly the best score of the day.
Cullyhanna scored another point from a free when Liam O’Hare fowled Casey who was running strongly at the killeavy defence. The ref then showed O’Hare his second
yellow and one of killeavy's best defenders on the night was dismissed. With the extra player Cullyhanna continued to press the killeavy full back line which was
undoubtly killeavy’s best set of players on the night. By the 59th minute St Pats were 5 points ahead when the ball flew over the bar when a goal looked an easier
option. A well placed kick out to Duffy who lead the midfield superbly set up a free for killeavy who some how managed to engineer a goal from it when Adrian Doran
found Gerald Byrne with a pinpoint hand pass for Byrne to send a low scorching shot to the net. It was too little too late as the game had now slipped into injury time
and it was up to ex killeavy star Mark McDonnell to hit over a point in the 3rd minute of injury time to leave it killeavy 2-04 St Patrick’s 0-13. David O’Reilly
will have some work to do in training particularly in the forward line were killeavy hit 7 wides in total and were far too reliant in O’Hare, Doran and Byrne.
Full-Time: Killeavy 2-4 St. Patrick's 0-13
Killeavy: M Teggart, K Martin, F Mallon, K O’Hare, G Reel, L O’Hare, P Donnelly, P Watters, J Duffy, P Rocks, S Toner, B McKevitt, G Byrne 1-02,
A Doran 1-02 and A O’Hare. Subs: D O’Hanlon for A O’Hare, S Malone for D O’Hanlon, J Reel for P Rocks.
