Kilcoole storm into ‘A’ decider

at Dunbur Park injury and was making his first appearance in a long time.

Coolboy brought in Michael Gregan at full-forward and moved Wayne Kinsella out to centre-forward.

Matt Gilbert converted a ‘45’ early in the second half to push the lead to three points.

When Kilcoole lost centre-back Matt Kennedy to a Black Card he could not be replaced as he was already on a yellow and received a red card.

Just like in the drawn encounter, Kilcoole were down to fourteen players with 25 minutes left.

It seemed to galvanise their forwards into action and more or less from this point on, Kilcoole took control and began to pull away.

Declan Roper quickly added a goal and two points. A melee in centre field about midway through the half resulted in the dismissal of Kilcoole’s Conor O’Toole and Coolboy’s Adam Barnes, who had come on as a substitute.

From here on the Coolboy challenge fell away and apart from a brief period of pressure near the end, when Stephen Carter scored two points from play and another from a free, their race was run.

For Kilcoole, Danny Kavanagh had a pointed free after 20 minutes, Luke Evans added one from play and Ronan Keddy goaled as the game entered injury time. Danny Kavanagh completed the scoring in added time when he goaled from a penalty.

Thus a game, which was evenly contested until halftime, fell away in the second half and Kilcoole were convincing winners in the end.

Scorers – Kilcoole: Declan Roper, Matt Gilbert 0-5, Lee Dutton 1-1, Danny Kavanagh 1-1 and Lee Evans 0-1.

Coolboy: Stephen Carter 0-4, Kevin O’Keeffe 0-3, PJ Mulhall 0-1.

Kilcoole: Glen Tighe; Keith Reynolds, Colm McGovern, Connor O’Toole; Ronan Keddy, Matt Kennedy, Dara Keddy; Vinny Quigley, Toby O’Brien; Lee Dutton, Matt Gilbert, Jack Bellamy; Luke Evan, Eoin Keddy, Declan Roper. Subs: Danny Kavanagh for Vinny Quigley; Kevin Condren for Keith Reynolds;

Coolboy: Joe Dempsey; James Gregan, Anthony Holly, Garrett Gregan; Jonathon Smith, Johnny Willoughby, Aaron Kinsella; Dan Nolan, Brendan Behan; Daithai Tighe, PJ Mulhall, PJ O’Keeffe; Kevin O’Keeffe, Wayne Kinsella, Stephen Carter. Subs: Michael Gregan for Daithai Tighe; Adam Barnes for PJ O’Keeffe; Paul O’Keeffe for Jonathon Smith; Enda Gettings for Aaron Kinsella; Fred Kiersey for Garrett Gregan.

Referee: Garreth Whelan