Derby delight for Killannin as they advance to last four

Killannin 1-11

Oughterard 1-8

Pádraic Ó Ciardha at Pearse Stadium

Killannin are through to the semi finals of this year’s senior championship but they made hard work of their win over Oughterard at the weekend. Marvin Lee’s side should have had this game against their neighbours wrapped up inside 10 minutes but it wasn’t until the 60th minute that their supporters could finally start to look forward to a long-awaited appearance in the final four.

Substitute Cian Folan, who made an excellent impact after being introduced, kicked Killannin’s final score to give them a four point cushion heading into added-time and while Patrick Walsh floated over the game’s final score for Oughterard, he was trying to drop the ball into the square to create an unlikely goal.

Oughterard performed much better in the second-half, boosted by the introduction of Matthew Tierney at the break, but they were second best for much of the game. Killannin had a frankly ridiculous 11 wides in the first half and while a couple were overhit passes rather than shots, their conversion rate was still down around 35% in the first period.

Thankfully for Killannin, Oughterard couldn’t get anything going during the first half. It took seven minutes for Oughterard to even bring the ball into Killannin territory and their first score didn’t come until the 17th minute. They only managed one more point before the interval but were blessed to find themselves just six points down, 1-5 to 0-2.

Alan Murphy’s side had that deficit almost wiped out four minutes after the restart as they hit 1-2 but after that Killannin always seemed to be able to hit back with a couple of scores whenever came Oughterard at them.

The two main traits of the first half, Killannin’s dominance and their profligacy, were evident from the outset. They won possession from the throw-in and held onto the ball for the next 85 seconds before Patrick Sweeney eventually shot wide.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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