Kilmainhamwood 4-11 Cortown 0-12

Cortown’s Championship woes continued on Sunday afternoon in Moynalty with a goal-hungry Kilmainhamwood inflicting a second successive defeat on Martin McGovern’s team in front of a large crowd that congregated to the North Meath venue.

It was a tempestuous affair from the early exchanges with the rivalry of the teams eclipsing the seriousness (or lack of) of the contest. Kian Gillespie was dismissed inside 10 minutes with Rian Stafford on target for the 1996 Senior Champions.

Cortown settled with scores from Davy Rispin and a Hugh Staunton free to get them off and running. Stafford replied in kind down the other end to keep ‘The Wood’ firmly in the driving seat despite their numerical disadvantage. However, Michael Shankey was the latest Wood player to be carded with referee Peter Skelly this time brandishing a black for a deliberate trip on Staunton with Rispin pointing the resulting free.

Despite playing with 13, Sean Carolan’s men ran in their first goal with Noah Madden collecting and finishing off Dara Smith following a strong purposeful run. Things were evened up moments later with Tommy Smith shown a straight red card for an overzealous challenge, harsh and all as it was.

Cortown arguably performed better with 14 as is often the case with a brace of frees from Staunton and one from Rispin narrowing the gap to three at the break, 1-6 to 0-6.

Staunton pointed in fine fashion early in the second to reduce the arrears, but the leaders hit back with their second green flag of the day. This time it was the superb Stafford who pounced on a loose handpass in the Cortown full back line to riffle into the roof of the net.

It looked like it was going to get even worse moments later with Stevie Clarke mowing one of the Kilmainhamwood players down inside the area with a penalty awarded. You’d have fancied Stafford, but Colm McGearty had his homework done with the kicker going to his favoured left allowing McGearty to parry to safety.

Substitute Elliot Reilly went on a typically meandering run down the left-hand side before unleashing an excellent effort in attempt to provide some inspiration. Staunton also added another couple of well-dispatched frees to just about keep the men in yellow in touch.

Any lingering hopes of a late revival were firmly put to bed with Madden stealing in for his second goal of the afternoon, cooly slotting inside the near-hand post. There was still time for a fourth too with the makeshift corner forward Paul Carolan capping off an industrious performance with a goal late in the day. Ciaran Keating and substitute Oisin Smith added late consolation scores for Cortown but the die was long since cast at this stage.

Both sides advance to the Quarter-Finals of the Junior B Championship, Kilmainhamwood with a far easier game on paper at least against Boardsmill whilst winless Cortown have the mammoth task of a clash with fellow North-Meath opponents Carnaross on Thursday week.   

Cortown: Colm McGearty; Barry Canning, Decky Clarke, Micky Costello; Kevin Muldoon, Charlie Smith, Ciaran Keating (0-1); Luca Brady, Stevie Clarke; Daragh Smith, Tommy Smith, Davy Rispin (0-3 two frees), Brían Smith, Hugh Staunton (0-6 five frees).

Subs: Elliot Reilly (0-1) for Muldoon, Oisin Smith (0-1) for S Clarke, Josh Keating for Costello.

Referee: Peter Skelly (St Brigid’s)

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