Kilcoo
best in thrilling senior league decider - 25/11/2003
Down
Senior Football Division One Final: Kilcoo 2-05 Castlewellan
1-07
The Kilcoo club bridged a 45 year-old
gap when they outplayed and outscored favourites Castlewellan
in a highly entertaining and exciting Harp Lager Down
SFL decider in St. Patrick's Park, Newcastle on Sunday
23rd November. The final score in an absorbing contest
was 2-5 to 1-7 in favour of Kilcoo.
This local derby clash in front of
a very large attendance lived up to all its pre-match
predictions, and the closeness of the scoring kept
the crowd on their toes right to the final whistle.
Castlewellan started the game in
brilliant fashion and had a point from former county
star, Ciaran McCabe after ten seconds! They continued
to dominate and looked likely winners even at this
early stage when Finbar Rice got through for a goal
in the sixth minute. It took Kilcoo ten minutes before
they got their opening score – and what an effort
it proved when Barry Morgan beat county goalkeeper
Mickey Mc Veigh to a dropping ball in the Castlewellan
square.
This score seemed to give the Kilcoo
the confidence they needed and within two minutes
they got their second by way of a penalty when county
minor player, Conor Laverty was brought down, and
he beat McVeigh for the resultant spot-kick. Castlewellan
regrouped and with points from Damien McGrady and
Gregory McCartan were back in the contest at the break
trailing by 2-2 to 1-3.
Castlewellan came out for the second-half
in determined fashion and dominated the third quarter
with points from Gregory McCartan from a free and
Damien and Paul McGrady which saw them take a one
point lead. However, Kilcoo were not to be denied
and with ten minutes of the game remaining they were
back on level terms with a point from Anthony Devlin.
The next few minutes saw both teams register points
from Dominic McEvoy and Ciaran McCabe.
With the match now entering its final
minutes the game was there for the taking for both
teams. Kilcoo got the breakthrough three minutes from
the end when Conor Laverty raced up the right wing
and scored an opportunist point – a score that was
to prove the difference in the end.
There was great scenes of celebration
when the league cup was presented to the Kilcoo captain
Anthony Devlin at the end of what was a thrilling
encounter – a fitting finale to what has been a great
season of league football in the Mourne county.
