Kildallan 1-9 Knockbride 0-7

Kildallan found their scoring touch in the second-half to down Knockbride in tonight's junior championship clash at Kingspan Breffni Park.

In the wet and windy conditions, the Ballyconnell outfit could afford to tally 14 wides over the hour as Darragh McGovern (0-4) and Niall Cassidy (1-1) came up trumps for them when it mattered most to help seal their side's third win in as many games.

Knockbride could only manage a single score from play in this contest and were over reliant on marksman Adam Traynor (0-5) for their scores throughout, while also being made to rue a number of missed goal opportunities.

The first-half was far from a spectacle, with the teams tallying 17 wides (10 of those belonged to the winners) between them and 13 minutes having passed before Traynor sent over the opening score via well-struck free.

Stephen Maguire mis-cued a goal chance for the Canningstown men a minute later but they'd be two to the good once Traynor tapped over another place ball in the 22nd minute.

Kildallan finally got off the mark in the next attack as wing forward Cassidy cut through, setting up Shane McPartland in front of the posts and the midfielder blasted his goal effort over James Lynch's crossbar.

McGovern looped over the leveller a minute later off the back of some slick inter-charge in the west Cavan side's attack and they'd arrive at their first lead once the centre-forward sped through on 26 minutes to raise the white flag.

All that good work from the First Ulsters should have been undone by Niall McCabe at the other end, but the Knockbride corner-forward fluffed his lines at the crucial moment and it allowed McGovern (free) to send Kildallan in with the 0-4 to 0-2 advantage at the halfway stage.

Killian Doonan's 40-metre point set the second-half tone for Eugene McLoughlin's men and they'd be let off the hook again with McCabe smashing over with the chance for the umpire's green flag on.

Back-to-back points from John O'Neill followed, as Kildallan moved into the final quarter four clear, and they still had a hammer blow to land. Having earned himself a free 45 metres out, McGovern quickly lobbed a high ball in on top of Cassidy at full-forward and the lanky attacker showed brilliant hands to take the ball down and bury it low to the Knockbride net.

It left the trailers with a mountain to climb in the closing 10 minutes and although they rattled off the next three scores from Traynor (2 frees) and Jordan McCabe (45) to make a fight of it, their opponents had the composure to seal the win in injury-time.

A sublime score from McGovern, which saw him fetch Ronan Fitzpatrick's kick-out, speed away and smash over, was backed up by Cassidy sending over another to cancel out Traynor's fifth free in the added minutes.

Kildallan: Ronan Fitzpatrick; Fergal Donohoe, Niall Crowe, Peadar Reilly; Ciaran Donohoe, Stephen Crowe, Neasan Neary; Killian Doonan (0-1), Shane McPartland (0-1); Niall Cassidy (1-1), Darragh McGovern (0-4, 1f), Daithi Neary; Ryan O'Neill, John O'Neill (0-2), Conal Johnston. Subs: Ronan O'Reilly for C Johnston (43mins), Wayne O'Grady for D Neary (49), Oisin Murray for J O'Neill (59).

Knockbride: James Lynch; Declan Nulty, Peter O'Reilly, Eamon Carolan; Sean Rogers, Michael Clarke, Ciaran Lynch; Jordan McCabe (0-1, 45), Patrick Rogers; Adam Traynor (0-5, 5f), Larry Reilly, Adrian Carroll; Larry Maguire, Stephen Maguire, Niall McCabe (0-1). Subs: Raphael Rogers for M Clarke (27mins), Seamus O'Brien for L Maguire (36), Roy Donohoe for L Reilly (37), David Rogers for C Lynch (40).

Ref: Jim Giblin (Arva)

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