ACFL Division 1
Kickhams 1-13 to St Galls 0-06
Kickham’s Creggan maintained their place at the top of division 1 after this ten point win over visitors St. Gall’s on the Staffordstown Road tonight. The home side led by five at half time and never really looked like getting caught but a Matthew Rodgers goal late in the contest ensured there would be no way back for the visitors.
In an entertaining game between Kickhams and St Galls it was only in the last 10 minutes that Kickhams pulled away for a home win.
Tiernan Mc Ateer opened the scoring in the 1st minute with a well taken point with 2 more points coming from Ruairi and Jamie McCann as the Kickham’s dominated the opening exchanges.
.St Galls got their only score of the first half when the hard working Conal McGirr split the posts but it brought an immediate response from the league leaders.
Tiernan McAteer and Jamie McCann added their 2nd points in the 22nd and 24th minute and Sean Duffin hit his first point of the game in the 27th minute to leave Kickhams leading 0-06 to 0-01 at the short whistle.
Dominic McAteer followed in his brother’s footsteps from the first half as he scored a nice point in the 1st minute but Niall Burns replied with St. Gall’s second of the game in the 5th minute to give his side some hope.
Those hopes were quickly dashed as Kickhams came back with points again from Ruairi and Jamie Mc Cann to extend their lead. St Galls weren’t giving up and came back with a Cormac Bradley point but the hard working Tiernan Mc Ateer broke up a St Galls attack and finished the move with an excellent point with the outside of the boot right on the sideline. Again St Galls came back to enjoy their best period of the game and scored 3 unanswered points from Eoghan McCabe 24th minute and 2 points from Niall Burns in the 25th and 26th minutes to close the gap to 4 points.
A comeback looked possible at this stage but Creggan were able to find a response and Seán Duffin finished with a fine point after doing the hard work himself in the 27th minute. It was left to the two late subs to put the game out of the visitors reach as Kevin Small and Mathew Rodgers fired over before Rodgers finished off a fine cameo performance as he found the net to after they had hit the bar 4 times in the second half to put the game out of sight.