St. Mary’s just do enough to seal four point win over Coolaney
ST.MARY’S just did enough to get off to an opening round win over Coolaney/Mullinbreena on Sunday.
Mary’s started very brightly and took a quick lead as they opened up a five-point gap after six minutes on the clock with Rory Guinan and Cian Breheny opening the scoring.
The Padraig McGourty managed Coolaney Mullinbreena side were slow to get into the game but a free from Shane O’Brien settled his side as two more points soon followed to cut the deficit back to just two points.
An excellent team move on 11 minutes put Mary’s in control once again as Guinan, McGoldrick and a great finish from Kyle Cawley saw Mary’s get the only goal of the game.
Despite this blow Coolaney/Mullinbreena would come more into the game as they outscored Mary’s 7-3 in this period.
THe only concern from the south Sligo side would be that they only scored once from play in the opening half which came from an Anthony Walsh point.
O’Brien and Kieran Finan kept the score board ticking from Coolaney/Mullinbreena’s perspective as the score at the break read 1-8 0-10 in favour of the Sligo town side.
Gavin Gorman got the opening score of the half before the sides exchanged scores to remain level in this exciting championship encounter.
When Barry Gorman put Coolaney/Mullinbreena in front it looked like they would kick on, but they had a couple of opportunities which just went wide and on another day they would went further ahead.
Two frees from Guinan put Mary’s back in front but a free from Finan had the sides level with seven minutes to play but the experience of Mary’s paid off as they would score four points without reply including a brace from substitute Johnny Lynch as Mary’s started their campaign with a four-point victory.
Coolaney/Mullinbreena will feel they should have at least taken a draw out of this game but they will have to regroup for the meeting of Eastern Harps in round 2.
St.Mary’s Fintan Ruddy, Caolan O’Grady, Luke Nicholson, Conor Darcy, Johnny Martyn, Gerard O’Kelly Lynch(0-1), Johnny Davey(0-1), Niall McManus, Paul Kilcoyne, Cian Breheny(0-2), Rory Guinan(0-8,8f), Nathan Rooney, Kyle Cawley(1-1), Dermot O’Connor, Mark McGoldrick
Subs used: Johnny Lynch(0-2,1f), Niall McDermott, Dylan Kilgannon
Coolaney/Mullinbreena Eoin McDonagh (01,45), Stephen Barrett, Aidan Coleman, Kevin O’ Kennedy,Conor Gorman, Declan McCormack, Anthony Walsh(0-1), Stephen Connolly, Barry
Gorman(0-1), Sean Gorman, Shane O’Brien(04,4fs), Niall Connolly, Gavin Gorman(0-1), Criostoir Davey, Kieran Finan(0-5,5fs)
Subs used: Daniel Davey (0-1), Conor McCormack, Raymond Connolly, Gavin Feely
Referee: Gus Chapman