Semi Final: St Canice's Dungiven V Kilcar
St Canice’s, Dungiven (Derry) 1-12 V Kilcar (Donegal) 1-10
A Tomas Brady goal 10 minutes into the second half proved the crucial score for Dungiven in yesterday’s Thomas Devlin Motors Ulster U21 Club Championship quarter-final at Creggan.
The midfielder pounced after Jason Craig’s effort had come back off the upright to send the Derry side into a lead they held until the final whistle, after Kilcar had held a four-point lead just after the restart.
In an entertaining clash, Dungiven just about deserved the honours and will now meet Down champions Mayobridge in the semi-final.
No more than point separated the sides in a nip and tuck first half. Most observers in the crowd had the sides tied at 0-5 apiece at the short whistle but referee Martin Sludden had Kilcar a point ahead, 0-6 to 0-5, with Patrick McBrearty’s tally benefitting from the Tyrone ref’s keen eyesight.
McBrearty was central to Kilcar’s challenge in the first half. The senior county star ran at the Dungiven defence from midfield, and in the second half at full forward enjoyed a superb battle with man of the match Paddy Kelly on the edge of the square.
McBrearty, inevitably, was involved in the Kilcar goal, laying off to Eoghan McHugh who finished well past Sean Garvey to give the Donegal side a 1-6 to 0-5 lead 40 seconds after the restart.
Dungiven, through Conor Murphy and Marty Burke, chipped away at the deficit and edged ahead when Brady raised their only green flag on 40 minutes.
Donal McGilligan gave the Derry side a three-point cushion but by the 50th minute a McBrearty double had the minimum between the sides. Burke put Dungiven two ahead with four minutes on the clock and Kilcar almost snatched victory when McBrearty got on the end of another long ball, but his shot across the goal slipped just wide of the upright.
“We cut out mistakes in the second half and we thought at half time if we could get the ball in a bit quicker we could do damage. We don’t know much about Mayobridge but there’s no bad sides at this stage,” said Dungiven selector Seoirse McGonigle.
Kilcar boss John McNulty was magnanimous in defeat: “Overall it was a great game, both teams put in a great effort and maybe overall Dungiven deserved their victory. You couldn’t expect much more from the lads, we gave 100 per cent. We came up to Creggan and gave a good effort and we can home proud of ourselves.”
Dungiven: K Farren; M McCloskey, P Kelly, T Hendry; K Johnston (0-1), S Murray, D McGilligan (0-1); S O’Kane (0-1), T Brady (1-0); R McElhinny (0-2, 0-1f), C Murphy (0-2), S O’Neill (0-1); S Kerlin, K O’Connor, M Burke (0-4, 0-2f)
Subs: J Craig for T Hendry
Kilcar: S Garvey; S McBrearty, C O’Donnell, T Burke; K Campbell (0-1), P Carr, R McGinley; M McHugh (0-2f), D Gillespie; E McHugh (1-0), D McGinley, C Gilmore (0-1); L Doherty, P McBrearty (0-6, 0-3f), M McClean
Referee: M Sludden (Tyrone)
Match Report by John Martin
Photos by Eunan McAteer