McClean content as Kilcar return to winning ways against Killybegs

Kilcar forward Matthew McClean was pleased as his Kilcar side bounced back with a derby win away to Killybegs.

The Towney men had a perfect start to the championship with an away win over St Eunan’s, but they were then surprised by Downings at home.

Their response however was swift on Saturday, going seven ahead inside five minutes against Killybegs.

And they eventually got over the line to win by two, despite the hosts hitting two second half goals to make it a nervy ending.

“We held on to the lead well, a few things did go against us with the goal and that but we really did battle hard when we went down to 14 men for a period but we did well,” McClean said after the match.

Minus Paddy McBrearty who wasn’t even on the bench as he missed out with injury, along with Eoin McHugh who was in a protective boot, the Kilcar men were down a couple of important players.

But the return of Ryan McHugh, playing his first club championship match of the season, was a huge plus as he kicked four second-half points to keep his side ticking over, particularly in the period when Ciaran McGinley was black carded.

“Ryan (McHugh) kicked some very important scores to keep us in that lead and Killybegs had the chance to level the game in the end but it would have been a massive kick.

“Everyone on the field realised we needed to stand up a bit, we were really good under the break and that was the period where Ryan kicked those scores.

“That was Ryan’s first game of the championship and he’s carrying a knock so it was really good to have him back and he showed his quality in the second half.

“Last week was disappointing, and it was a similar kind of game. We went ahead, but they got a goal and then kicked a 60 yarder to win it, so this week it could have been similar, but we really knuckled down and fought hard and deserved the game in the end.”

It leaves Kilcar on four points after three games and fourth in the table before Sunday’s action, but with a couple of teams already on four and a host of teams on two points, it’s hard to call what number of points will get a team into the top four and avoid the preliminary quarter-finals.

“The results in this championship in particular, if you look at the odds and things like that it hasn’t really gone as predicted. Downings were brilliant in the second half, and the two pointers really killed us, whereas this weekend, we probably outscored them in the two pointers, which makes a big difference.

“It’s hard to know (what points tally will get in the top four), but for us, we’re really just looking at the performances and really trying to nail that down, and we’ll be happy with what we showed.

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“The league didn’t start well for us, but we were missing a lot of boys. 50-60% of that team didn’t play league football, but we’ve started getting a bit of momentum at the end of the league, which kept us up, and we’ve brought that into the championship.

“We still have a few things to work on, and we won’t get ahead of ourselves, but we’ll knuckle down and get at it.”