Killeshandra 4-9 Castlerahan 0-9

Goal merchants Killeshandra Leaguers lit up the senior championship this afternoon with a five-star performance against Castlerahan at Kingspan Breffni Park.

In the end, it was four well-executed goals that made all the difference for Damien Keaney's team as they made one of the biggest upsets in the competition in recent years look easy, with Castlerahan having been ranked 1/9 favourites coming into this contest.

Aaron Brady's early goal was the perfect start for the Leaguers and had them on their way, adding to a lead they'd never surrender. They registered two more in the space of four minutes in the third quarter before Paddy King lashed home number four to shut the door on their Ballyjamesduff counterparts.

Castlerahan looked to be out of steam, as well as ideas, for much of the second-half, while their opponents saw out the victory with Declan McKiernan, Tomas O'Reilly and Daniel Luby all to the fore, avenging the heavy defeat the maroons inflicted on them in last year's race for the Oliver Plunkett Cup.

Luby had the Leaguers up and running inside a minute and they were well and truly ignited when the wing forward put Brady through for the net a few minutes later.

Rocked by the early concession, Castlerahan couldn't get anything going for the first 10 minutes. When they did they'd struggle to shoot into a stiff breeze, and would have to wait until the 11th for corner-forward Oisin O'Connell to open up their account.

Tomas O'Reilly cancelled that out quickly with a trademark effort from long range but frees at the other end from Cian McEnroe and Enda Flanagan outweighed a white flag from Conor McGearty to cut it to three.

Brady's black card a minute from the break was about all that went wrong for Killeshandra in this game, but his replacement Austin Fitzpatrick soon got them back into their rhythm with a fine score deep into injury-time, leaving it at 1-4 to 0-3 for the break.

Picking up where he'd left off, Fitzpatrick ushered his side into five point lead early on in the restart and the next few minutes would be about as good as it got for their opponents, with O'Connell and McEnroe (free) sending over scores in quick succession.

However, signs of the game slipping from the Ballyjamesduff side's reach was there for all to see once Luby snatched a McKiernan pass from the sky, turned and buried to the net past Jamie Leahy.

A sweetly struck point from Tomas O'Reilly soon followed and the game was over as a contest once a slick sweeping move by the Leaguers attack saw King and McGearty combine to send O'Reilly through from where the centre-forward simply couldn't miss for the umpire's green flag.

McKiernan and Cian Mackey traded well struck frees after but Killeshandra were still keen on piling on the misery for their counterparts, with King breaking through for the fourth major, after great work from Shane Murphy, to put the game to bed.

Both sides would lose a man each in the closing stages, with O'Reilly picking up a second yellow and Enda Flanagan issued a straight red for an incident off the ball, but wouldn't make any impact on the outcome as Killeshandra strode to the 12-point win.

The earlier game at Kingspan Breffni Park saw Corlough cruise to a 4-14 to 0-8 victory over Maghera, who finished with 12 men, in the first round of the junior championship.

Killeshandra: Joe Masterson; Cillian O'Reilly, Darragh Tighe, Conor Smith; Kyle Duffy, Damien Higgins, Sean McKiernan (0-1); Aaron Brady (1-0), Declan McKiernan (0-2, 2f); Daniel Luby (1-1), Tomas O'Reilly (1-2), Shane O'Reilly; Shane Murphy, Paddy King (1-0), Conor McGearty (0-1). Subs: Austin Fitzpatrick (0-2) for A Brady (30mins, BC).

Castlerahan: Jamie Leahy; Stephen Cooney, Eugene Hill, Fergal Reilly; Paul Smith, Ronan Flanagan, Jamie McGrath; Fiarchra Sweeney, Barry Cusack; Daniel Lynch, Cian McEnroe (0-2, 2f), Paul Cusack; Cian Mackey (0-3, 1f), Enda Flanagan, Oisin O'Connell (0-2). Subs: Shane O'Reilly (0-2) for P Cusack (41mins), Enda O'Connell for C McEnroe (46).

Ref: Gerry Sheridan (Mullahoran)

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