St Eunan's get off and running with routine win over Killybegs

Rory Kavanagh marked the occasion of his first match in charge at O’Donnell Park as St Eunan’s manager with a win over Killybegs.

St Eunan’s 0-13 Killybegs 0-4

The Letterkenny side went down 2-8 to 0-5 against Gaoth Dobhair in Magheragallon last weekend, while John Cunningham’s Killybegs set off their season on the right note with a fine 2-15 to 0-12 victory over Glenswilly.

Today, the younger of their two Conor O’Donnells top-scored with seven points in all.

Both teams today were missing a handful, with fresh faces aplenty and after the first quarter it was St Eunan’s who led 0-3 to 0-1 with Conor O’Donnell Jnr scoring a brace, one from a free and a marked point. Conor Cunningham scored Killybegs’ only point of that spell, with Darragh Mulgrew opening the scoring on 15 seconds. 

David Boyle, starting corner-forward for St Eunan’s, opened his account before Eoin McGeehin also rounded off a following move and O’Donnell scored his third and fourth  for 0-7 to 0-1 advantage on 26 minutes. 

Ryan Cunningham scored a splendid point on the turn for the team from the Fintra, although it wasn’t going to halt the tide as McGeehin pointed and Antoine O’Hara had to scamper from his line to save from Brian MacIntyre right on half-time. It was 0-8 to 0-2 for St Eunan’s at the break. 

Killybegs started the second half better, with Jack McSharry scoring twice. O’Hara in the Killybegs goal made a brilliant save on 37 minutes to touch an O’Donnell effort onto the crossbar, as St Eunan’s were 0-10 to 0-4 in front at the second-half water-break.

Close to the end of a pedestrian final 15 minutes, substitute Shaun McGettigan rounded off a routine win.

St Eunan’s: Eoin O’Boyle; Peter McEniff, Darragh Toal, Anthony Gallagher; Conor O’Donnell Snr, Eamonn Doherty, Darragh Mulgrew (0-1); Kevin Keely, Oisin Toal; Brian MacIntyre, Cormac Finn, James Kelly; Conor O’Donnell Jnr (0-7, 3f, 1m), Eoin McGeehin (0-3, 1m), David Boyle (0-1). Subs: Eoin Dowling and Jordan O’Dowd for C O’Donnell Snr and McEniff (41), Sean Ryan, Cian McMonagle and Shaun McGettigan (0-1) for Mulgrew, MacIntyre and Keely (52)

Killybegs: Antoine O’Hara;  Cillian Gildea, Ciaran Conaghan, Niall Carberry; Michael Callaghan, Jon Ban Gallagher, Ryan Carr; Seamus Og Byrne, Rory Colyer; Ryan Cunningham (0-1), Jack McSharry (0-2, 1f), Christopher Murrin; Niall Campbell, Conor Cunningham (0-1, 1f), Christopher Mulligan. Subs: Odhran McGuinness for Murrin (half-time), Shaun Gorrell and Donal McGuire for Campbell and Mulligan (53), Owen Gallagher for Gildea (60+2).

Referee: Shaun McLaughlin (Malin)