St Cillian's overcome Kinnitty in HQ Physio Intermediate Cup

Kinnitty's Ellen Robinson comes under severe presure from the St Cillians players in Monday's Intermediate Cup match (Photo by John Gavin)

The final round of matches in the group stages of the HQ Physio Intermediate Cup were played on Monday evening with the top two teams, Kinnitty and St Cillians playing each other in Carrig.  

There was a torrential downpour an hour before the game but both teams were relieved to see it stopped before they began their warm up.  When play began however there was a stiff breeze blowing across the pitch and if there was any advantage from it, it was Kinnitty that had the benefit in the first half.  Despite that, St Cillians opened the scoring almost immediately from the throw in when Aoife O'Donovan pointed.  Kinnitty replied with two converted frees in the space of a minute from Patrice Delaney however their lead was short lived as St Cillians hit three points without reply.  Another point from Delaney narrowed the gap to just one point.  

With 15 minutes gone the Kinnitty sharpshooter stood over another free and attempted to go for goal from long range but Caoimhe Rice in the St Cillians goal was alert to the danger and saved the attempt.  As St Cillians cleared and went on the attack they too had a goal attempt saved by Eleanor Clendennen in the Kinnitty goals.  Another goal opportunity went abegging when Aoife Bergin pulled the ball across the face of the St Cillians goals but there was no one to take advantage of the opportunity for Kinnitty.  In fact Kinnitty had a number of opportunities in the half where shots on target dropped short of the target only for Rice to clear her lines unchallenged.  With half time approaching a point from Delaney levelled the scores but St Cillians replied with a point from Aoife O'Donovan.  

There were some lengthy stoppages in the first half so as injury time ticked on there was still time for Kinnitty's Michelle Carroll to find the net in what proved to be the last attack of the half to leave her side leading 1-4 to 0-5 at half time.

While the first half was a tightly fought half, the second half was a slightly different affair.  St Cillians went on the attack immediately and hit three points before Kinnitty got their first score of the half but Sarah Freeman was proving to be hard for the Kinnitty backs to handle and when she wasn't scoring from play she was converting frees and for most of the half she controlled the scoring with Delaney hitting over three Kinnitty frees.  With ten minutes remaining a Kinnitty goal would have brought them back into the game and although chances arose, they were unable to convert them.  St Cillians went on to add additional points to their tally and claimed the win on a score line of 0-16 to 1-9.

Teams:

St Cillians:  Caoimhe Rice, Kacey Larkin, Laura Hogan, Sinead Fallon, Molly Hogan, Cara Hoare, Caoimhe Ginty, Cailin Fitzgerald, Sarah O'Rourke, Emma Harding, Elaine Hanlon, Sarah Freeman, Sinead Hoctor, Aoife O'Donovan, Aine Kennedy

Subs:  Anna Hoctor, Jade O'Meara, Kate Hogan, Caoimhe O'Donovan, Lisa Hoctor, Roisin Pinches, 

Kinnitty:  Eleanor Clendennen, Ellen Robinson, Raisa Scully, Caoimhe Carroll, Meadhbh Robinson, Leanne Scully, Teresa Corrigan, Margaret Mulrooney, Laura Spencer, Aoife Bergin, Patrice Delaney, Michelle Carroll, Alannah Dooley, Rachel Scully, Leanne Mahon

Subs:  Trish Corrigan, Amy Carroll, Rebecca Carroll, Laura O'Donoghue, Niamh Nolan, Grainne Carroll, Mary McCartain

Scorers:

St Cillians:  Sarah Freeman 0-8 (4 frees), Aoife O'Donovan 0-3, Aine Kennedy 0-2, Roisin Pinches 0-1, Caoimhe O'Donovan 0-1, Cailin Fitzgerald 0-1

Kinnitty:  Patrice Delaney 0-9 (8 frees), Michelle Carroll 1-0

In the other match between St Sinchills and St Rynaghs in Banagher, the visitors ran out comfortable winners hitting 3-13 to St Rynagh's 0-6.  

St Sinchills will now go on to play Kinnitty in the semi final this weekend while St Cillians will play St Rynaghs.  Details of the semi finals will be confirmed on Offaly Camogie's social media channels later in the week.