Greville goal seals facile win for Killucan

Killucan 3-11 Rosemount 0-10

Gerry Buckley

GAA SHAY MURTAGH PRECAST WESTMEATH SFC SECTION B

Killucan senior footballers comfortably maintained their unbeaten start in the race for the Flanagan Cup in TEG Cusack Park last night, three unanswered goals the main factor in their unflattering 10-point defeat of a very disappointing Rosemount side.

For their part, the black and amber-clad outfit are already in a fight to avoid the drop to intermediate football, their second successive championship loss in just three days leaving them with a lot of work to do in their three remaining fixtures.

A shot by David (Dude) McCormack came back off the post in the third minute, but his colleague David O’Reilly was more accurate some four minutes later after soloing goalward and he opened the losers’ account. Killian Doyle quickly equalised, prior to a point exchange between Sean Pettit (a difficult free) and Sami Clarke (after a Devin Hill goal attempt had been blocked).

The sides equally shared six points during the ensuing quarter of an hour. Stephen Morley’s troops’ scores came courtesy of Hill (who might have goaled), Eoin Keyes, and Hill again (from a free), while David (Dude) McCormack scored a varied hat-trick at the other end - a ‘mark’, a free, and open play.

The latter player and Clarke then traded points, but the men in saffron and white finished the first half strongly with unanswered points from Hill and corner back Andrew Flood, prior to an injury-time goal from Hill at the end of a fine move, to lead by 1-8 to 0-6 at the break.

A Pettit free and a neat score from play by Plunkett Maxwell had the gap down to a goal by the 35th minute. The respective number 13s, Hill and Pettit, swapped points from frees.

But a two-goal blitz in as many minutes at the start of the final quarter put Killucan firmly in control – Keyes (who had threatened to score a three-pointer on a couple of earlier occasions) and Robbie Greville (despite stumbling) both finding the net with aplomb.

The game was now over as a contest, and Killucan outscored Joe Quinn’s charges by two points (sub Ciaran Doyle from open play and a Hill free) to one (a Pettit ‘mark’) to wrap up an impressive victory.

Scorers - Killucan: D Hill 1-5 (0-3f), E Keyes 1-1, R Greville 1-0, S Clarke 0-2, K Doyle, A Flood and C Doyle 0-1 each. Rosemount: David (Dude) McCormack (1f, 1m) and S Pettit (3f, 1m) 0-4 each, P Maxwell and D O’Reilly 0-1 each.

Killucan: David Bryan; Andrew Flood, Sam Smith, Luke Darby; Cormac Boyle, Robbie Greville, Sean Quinn; Sean Leech, Connor McKeogh; Sami Clarke, Killian Doyle, Darren Finn; Devin Hill, Eoin Keyes, Rory Keyes. Subs used: Joey Boyle for Quinn (inj., 16), Aron Kiernan for McKeogh (35), Ciaran Doyle for K Doyle (inj., 50), Eamon Cunneen for R Keyes (53), Frank Boyle for Flood (54).

Rosemount: Peter Elliffe; Padraig Nestor, Damien Carroll, Ben O’Brien; Patrick Boland, Andy McCormack, Luke Kelly; David ('DD') McCormack, Enda Boland; Plunkett Maxwell, Declan Mullen, David O’Reilly; Sean Pettit, David ('Dude') McCormack, Cathal Daly. Subs used: Eamonn Boland for Nestor (25), Theo Watts for David ('DD') McCormack (inj., 41), David ('DD') McCormack for O’Reilly (52), Jack Slevin for Maxwell (52).

Ref: Mickey Dan Murtagh (The Downs).

MATCH AT A GLANCE

Man of the match: Devin Hill (Killucan). The promising corner forward top-scored with 1-5 (1-2 of it from play) and he was always a threat to what was a porous Rosemount defence.

Key moment: Hill’s goal came in the last action of the first moiety and it gave his side a nice cushion at the break.