Kilclief made to pay for missed opportunities

20 September 2017

A WORKMAN-LIKE Dundrum just had too much in the tank for a wasteful Kilclief at Pairc Tomas Ruiseil, Downpatrick, on Thursday night.

Both sides lacked sparkle in a disappointing affair, but it was a case of job done for Francie Toner’s Dundrum, who now meet Bright in the county final.

Dundrum were given a leg up by Kilclief who shot 13 wides over the hour.

Damian King’s lads settled first and took the game’s first two scores through Ciaran Sloan and Rory Sharvin, but Kilclief’s joy was short-lived as Dundrum hit a purple patch and plundered scores through Kyle Glavin, Cormac Venney and Ciaran Rice to take a 0-3 to 0-2 lead by the 10th minute.

Dundrum also saw two efforts come back off the uprights and could only watch in anguish when Venney was denied a certain goal by ‘keeper Danny Sharvin.

Conan Hynds brought the sides level in the 13th minute, but Rice punished Kilclief’s indiscretion at the back when he converted yet another free to make it 0-4 to 0-3.

With 15 minutes gone it was Dundrum’s turn to survive a goalmouth scramble after Conor Sloan had carved them open at the back, but as was the case on far too many occasions for Kilclief, the killer final ball was missing.

Rice and Conall Magee exchanged points, as did Sharvin and Aidan Fegan, and it was left to the lethal Rice to send Dundum in at the break with a 0-7 to 0-5 lead with yet another free.

Kieran Walsh extended Dundrum’s lead to three points at the start of the second half, but Aiden McCann, who was one of the few Kilclief players to excite the good crowd with his swashbuckling runs from wherever he got the ball, made it 0-8 to 0-6 with 38 minutes played.

There is no doubt that Kilclief were seeing more of the ball and it all came good for them after Kyle Glavin pointed Dundrum into a 0-9 to 0-6 lead with 41 minutes gone.

Unanswered points from Eoin King, Conor Sloan and Louis McMullan brought the sides level by the 46th minute, but that old profligate malaise came back to haunt Kilclief and Dundrum made them pay heavily.

Kilclief were unable to score for the remainder of the game as Dundrum registered the last three scores through Kieran Walsh, Oisin McKibbin and Venney to kill the game off.

Dundrum: M Smith, P Curry, R McGuigan, S McGeown, S Willoughby, J Hurley, C Doran, A Doyle, A Fegan (0-1), C Rice (0-4f), K Walsh (0-2, 1f), O McKibbin (0-1), K Glavin (0-2), C Venney (0-2), E King. Subs: O McKibbin for McGeown, T McShane for Doran.

Kilclief: D Sharvin, L McMullan (0-1), S Cultra, Conor Shields, A McCann (0-1), B Fitzsimons, E King (0-1), R Sharvin (0-2), J McGrath, C Magee (0-1), Ciaran Sloan (0-1), Conor Sloan (0-1), C Hynds (0-1), K Shields, D Curran. Subs: C McErlean for Ciaran Sloan.

Dundrum 0-12

Kilclief 0-9

TROCAIRE JFC SEMI-FINAL

Tweets by @TheDownRecorder