Senior debutants Kilconly make a successful start

Date Published: 30-May-2012

Kilconly 1-12

Leitir Mór 0-10

Dara Bradley at Pearse Stadium

KILCONLY secured senior status for another year at least after recovering from a slow start to beat Leitir Mór by five points at Pearse Stadium on Sunday in round one of the Galway senior football championship.

A decent vocal crowd turned up at Salthill to watch Kilconly compete in the club’s first ever senior championship clash, and the journey was worth it as the North Galway club made history by winning their inaugural match at this grade.

Last year’s intermediate title holders took some time to get to the pace of senior championship and were trailing by four points to one after the first quarter but a purple patch before the interval, a well taken Adrian Murphy goal after the turnaround, and a second dominant spell at the start of the fourth quarter, saw Bernard Brady’s charges power to victorydespite a plucky resistance from the Connemara men.

In hindsight, the most influential occurrence to the direction of this game possibly came before the throw-in when Leitir Mór full-back Colm Ó Conghaile was withdrawn after failing a late fitness test. Ó Conghaile is usually a rock and his late withdrawal was unsettling and meant a rejigging of the Gaeltacht side’s rearguard with centre-back Eanna Ó Cathaí switching to the last line of defence and Cóilín Ó h-Ógáin covering for him at six.

It’s hard to know would Ó Conghaile have been able to contain Kilconly full-forward Adrian Murphy had he played but one thing for certain is the backs that did start couldn’t handle the sharpshooter who ran riot, finishing the day with 1-5, all from play. John Kerrigan and Padraic Moran were also lively in attack against a hesitant Leitir Mór defence.

Martin Newell and Ciarán Ó Conghaile traded points in a tentative opening ten minutes before Leitir Mór took hold with Fiachra Breathnach, Pádraig M Ó Fátharta (two frees) stretching their advantage.

But suddenly Kilconly sprung to life as the quick movement and clever passing of the forwards had the opposition full-backline at sixes and sevens – they landed five unanswered points in the seven minutes leading up to the break as Leitir Mór went to sleep and Moran (three, one free) and Murphy (two) ‘went to town’ to give them a two-points, 0-6 to 0-4, interval cushion.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.