KILCAR REV UP
McBrearty is a class above and now they eye Slaughtneil scalp
TWENTY TWO minutes is all it took for Kilcar to come good on a promise and show their true selves in this Ulster club championship.
After scoring just seven points in bridging a 24-year title famine in Donegal earlier this month, they hinted that the best was yet to come.
And this is where it did. Eoin McHugh bounced off Paddy McBrearty’s shoulder to race through the middle and send a blistering drive beyond Rory Beggan.
That score did not just surpass their final tally in the county final inside 22 minutes, it also slammed the door on the Ulster ambitions of the Monaghan champions for another year.
And they won with such authority that it will provide defending champions Slaughtneil with food for thought when the teams meet in an eagerly anticipated semifinal in a fortnight’s time.
It is a contest that promises to stress-test the strength of Slaughtneil’s celebrated defence, especially given the red-hot form of McBrearty.
He was simply different class here, and neither Scotstown’s sweeper-based system nor the best effort of his unfortunate markers, Emmet Caulfield and subsequently Damian McArdle could get a handle on him.
It wasn’t just that the Donegal full-forward ended with 0-8 (0-4 from play) and set up that crucial goal, but it was also his sense of timing.
The final scoreline might not suggest it but Kilcar briefly looked in a spot of bother, not least when Kieran Hughes – who started brightly but faded – won a mark after three minutes.
He then released his county team-mate Conor McCarthy who scorched a hole in the Kilcar defence, rounding goalkeeper Eamonn McGinley, to fire into the net.
The Monaghan side were still leading 1-3 to 0-4 after 17 minutes, but their early dominance was undermined by their inability to cope with McBrearty, who was unmarkable in the opening half.
He kicked his team’s opening five points and seven of their first eight inside 26 minutes when this thing was still a contest. It was no one man show, though, and in the second quarter, it was the Donegal men’s targeting of Beggan’s re-starts which changed the momentum, three of which turned over and returned for scores.
McBrearty’s county-team mate Ryan McHugh scored two of those – he would end the contest with 0-5 – and that second quarter spurt left Kilcar leading at the break by 1-10 to 1-3.
There was no way back for Scotstown.
They moved Darren Hughes from full-forward to midfield in an attempt to staunch the bleeding in the second-half, despite points from McCarthy and Ross McKenna with two minutes of the re-start.
From there to the finish they were outscored by 0-6 to 0-1 as Kilcar cruised to the winning line. ‘It was just enjoyable. It took us a while to settle down but once we did we just mosied through the gears,’ claimed their veteran defender Michael Hegarty afterwards.
The suspicion is that there are a couple of gears left. It’ll help to find them against Slaughtneil.