Cromane hang on for well-earned win

Kilgarvan 0-16 Cromane 2-11

KILGARVAN gave Cromane – last year’s county novice champions – a mighty fright in a wet and windy Kilgarvan on Sunday evening.

The home side’s late surge just fell short, but their performance would have warmed their supporters as they made the Division 4 side work mighty hard for their win.

In the end, Kilgarvan will regret missing some decent goal-scoring chances in the first quarter after they had made a very promising start.

Cromane goalkeeper Paudie McCarthy pulled one good save from a Patrick O’Shea shot.

It was level at five apiece after eighteen minutes. Cromane then struck for their first goal when Paul Patrick O’Sullivan side-footed home after great approach work from Sean O’Sullivan. Kilgarvan – with Gearoid Fennessy and Con Godfrey impressing at midfield – didn’t let up and hit a purple patch, hitting four unanswered points in five minutes, from Donal O’Sullivan (two frees), Patrick O’Shea, and Richard O’Sullivan to retake the lead 0-9 to 1-5 after 25 minutes.

Cromane again had to come from behind and they did with Donnchadh Walsh starting to surge forward and having a hand in a few scores.

Points from each of Cromane’s full-forward line, the O’Sullivans – Seán and Paul Patrick – and Shane O’Neill meant they led by two at the break, 1-8 to 0-9.

Within 60 seconds of the restart Kilgarvan were dealt a hammer blow when a speculative Sean O’Sullivan shot lobbed over their goalkeeper’s head and into the net to give Cromane their biggest lead of the game, up five: 2-8 to 0-9.

Leading by five heading into the final quarter they would have expected to close the game out but they only managed one point while Kilgarvan’s late, late surge yielded five.

In the end, Cromane just about held on for the one-point win.