Kingscourt 1-18
Denn 2-6

by Shane Corrigan
at Kingspan Breffni Park

Kingscourt Stars rediscovered some of their best championship form to trounce Denn this evening at Kingspan Breffni Park.

The 2010 champions, whom suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Gowna last weekend, sizzled in the opening stages to kick 0-8 and practically end their opponents' hopes after a quarter of an hour.

Denn would certainly have been out of it by half-time were it not for Padraig McGovern's 20th minute goal and despite the centre-forward repeating the trick on the final quarter mark, the Crosskeys outfit were simply overrun by Kingscourt's in-form forwards, with Philip Smith (1-3) and Ryan McCormack (0-4) devastating them before Niall Lynch could afford to withdraw them both in the 45th minute.

Kingscourt raced out of the traps for this clash to open a three-point lead in as many minutes , with Alan Clarke, Philip Smith and Colm Smith all finding their range early on before Martin Cahill opened Denn's account in the fourth minute with a trademark forward drive from centre-back.

The Stars bagged another hat-trick of unanswered points to assert their authority on the game, as two from veteran forward Ryan McCormack and a Barry Reilly free put them five to the good before Noel Crowe stemmed the tide at the other end.

Colm Smith and Philip Tinnelly pushed the lead to six by the 13th minute and there was no sign of the town side letting up until the Crosskeys men struck a badly needed goal through McGovern.

After some grafting around the centre from Tomas Corr, Denn worked the ball up to Colin Kiernan in the corner and he found McGovern in space for the centre-forward to net low past James Farrelly to halve his team's deficit with 10 minutes remaining in the half.

Keith McCabe struck an immediate response to raise Kingscourt's ninth white flag, which would be soon erased by Martin Cahill's second, before Philip Smith moved the leaders into double figures, 0-10 to 1-3, at the halfway stage.

Denn, who chose not to alter their team for the second-half, had the first say after the resumption when Feargal Farrelly was slipped through at full-forward and crashed the ball over in effort of a goal. The full-forward would unfortunately have to be stretchered off later on in the half with a nasty injury.

Kingscourt responded in the best possible fashion by netting just a minute later to all but kill off the game as a contest. Smith's well-taken goal came off the back of some good work by Philip Tinnelly and it saw the Stars come into another purple patch, as points from McCormack (2), Smith and Reilly (free) saw them coast 10 clear.

McGovern fired in his second goal in the 42nd minute after ripping through Kingscourt's rearguard and finding the top corner in a rare flash of brilliance for Denn on the evening. The strike took some tarnish off the score-line, rather than bring Raymond Galligan's men back into contention as their opponents never looked in danger of losing this game.

After another Reilly free and a splendid run and point from Colm Smith, Kingscourt emptied their bench in the closing stages and despite Denn's best efforts down the other end, the likes of Shane Grey and Alan Clarke were simply too sound at the back for something drastic to happen as the Stars ran out comfortable nine-point winners.

Kingscourt: James Farrelly; Rory Sheridan, Shane Grey, Patrick Farrelly; JP O'Reilly, Alan Clarke (0-1), Ciaran Gorman; Colm Smith (0-3), Gavin Sheenan; Keith McCabe (0-1), Barry Reilly (0-3, 3f), Daryl Martin; Philip Tinnelly (0-2), Philip Smith (1-3), Ryan McCormack (0-4). Subs: Cian McArdle for R McCormack (43mins), Ryan Carey for P Smith (44), Anthony Corcoran (0-1) for D Martin (53), Aaron Brown for C Gorman (55).

Denn: Brian Boylan; Damien Callaghan, Ciaran McGovern, Eoin McPhilips; Adrian Cahill, Martin Cahill (0-2), Andrew Cusack-Smith; Tomas Corr (0-1), Noel Crowe (0-1); Cian McCann, Padraig McGovern (2-0), Dean Hyland; Shane Rehill, Feargal Farrelly (0-1), Colin Kiernan (0-1, 1f). Subs: Ben Conaty for D Hyland (47mins), Kieran Smith for C Smith (50), Alan Tierney for F Farrelly (51, inj), Martin McGovern for C McCann (57).

Ref: Jimmy Galligan (Lacken) Tweet

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