Positive start for Killavullen in Junior A Football Championship
August 21, 2023
Last Saturday night in Doneraile, Killavullen gained an important win, in their opening Junior A Football championship against the vastly experienced and wily competitors that are Charleville.
As is the norm with football games now, the game was slow to get into it stride with a lot of lateral places, and moving the opposition about, before Charlie Lillis, turned and jinked, and got enough space to get our opening score. Charleville responded with a nicely worked score of their own but Liam Fox scored again for us, with a clever conversion, in the 9th minute. Again, Charleville responded with a point in the 11th minute but we regained the lead in the 15th minute, when Eoin Birchill converted a free kick, after Jamie Magner, who was showing up well in front of his man was fouled. Charleville again responded with an equalizing score, in the 18th minute of the game.
We edged our noses in front again, when Liam Cronin drilled a long range free, straight over the middle marker of the goals, from 50 metres or so out. We got a lucky escape in the 22nd minute, when James in our goals somehow kept out a Charleville shot, that got a ricochet on the way through to him, and we edged further ahead from another converted free from Eoin in the 24th minute. Playing with the aid of the breeze in the opening half, Killavullen looked dangerous on quick possessions, but Charleville, once in their defensive position were hard to break down. Patrick O Grady was influential, and his probing attacking runs were hard for his immediate marker to track, he was unlucky to see a decent effort come down off the post, but Padraig Looney reacted best to the situation, and scored another point from the rebound for us. The score of the game came in the 27th minute, when Liam Fox, back, behind his own 13 metre line, and in the corner played the ball out to Brian Cotter and he took off at great speed up the centre of the field, before off loading at the vital moment to Padraig who slotted over a great point. Charlie Lillis scored another point for us, in the 30th minute, when the referee played a good advantage that worked out for us. Just before the interval, Charleville scored another point from a free in the 34th minute to leave the score at the interval, 0-08 to 0-04 in our favour.
Charleville opening the scoring in the 5th minute of the half but shortly there after, were reduced to 14 men, when Padraig Looney was fouled close in on goals. Eoin converted the resultant free. We lost the influential Liam Cronin to a hip injury and Seamus O Mahony replaced him. Charleville were very dominant in and around mid-field in this period, when their physical size gave them a decent platform. We had to be resolute and disciplined with our defending but Patrick Angland and Fionn Magner were very good in this period, one strip from Fionn, in particular was noteworthy. Charleville scored a close in free to bring the margin back to only three points, in the 14th minute, and the margin was even slimmer by the next minute when Charleville scored from open play. With hurling and football games on each week now, we picked up another costly injury when Eoghan Buckley had to lifted from the field after suffering a nasty ankle injury. Eddie Cotter replaced Eoghan. James executed another great save to force or tip a goal bound effort over the bar in the 23rd minute. It was tense and tight as Charleville pressed forward, aided by the wind, but we sprung Kian Lane and Rory O Regan from the bench, to try to hold back the tide against us. It had the desired effect as Jamie Magner scored for us, in the 30th minute, and Patrick Angland, sent a belter of a point over the bar, from well outside the D in the 33rd minute to gain some breathing space. Charleville replied in the 35th minute, but Eddie Cotter was very clever in fisting the ball over the bar in the 36th minute when any attempt at a shot with his foot would have been smothered. Charleville held pressing until the end, but our back line held very firm, with Patrick O Grady mopping up a tone of possession, in the second half and using it well. Charleville got the final score in the 37th minute, but Killavullen had done just about enough by that juncture, and won out on a final score of 0-12 to 0-10
Next up in the football championship will be Ballyclough, on the 9th of September.
The team was
- James Angland
- Cian O Connor
- Fionn Magner
- Patrick Angland (0-01)
- Paul O Sullivan
- Liam Cronin(0-01F)
- Brian Cotter
- Liam Fox (0-01)
- Ronan Barry
- Eoghan Buckley
- Eoin Birchill (0-03F)
- Patrick O Grady
- Charlie Lillis (0-02)
- Jamie Magner (0-01)
- Padraig Looney (0-02)
Substitutes
- Seamus O Mahony for Liam Cronin (injured)
- Eddie Cotter (0-01) for Eoghan Buckley (injured)
- Kian Lane for Charlie Lillis
- Rory O Regan for Padraig Looney