Castleisland Desmonds 1-18     St.Marys  Caherciveen 4-12           

St Marys made the long journey up from South Kerry on Saturday evening, July 22^nd, to play Castleisland Desmonds in Round 9 of the this year’s Senior Co. League In Castleisland.  
With the scoreboard at half time reading 3-08 for St.Marys to Desmonds 1-06, this game was definitely a game of two halves.

The first half started well for Desmonds, with Pat Fitzgerald opening the scoring with a lovely point from play and then we saw Thomas Hickey score a penalty, after Gearoid Mc Carthy was fouled and McCarthy scored a point himself from play, all within the first three minutes of the game. ( 1-02 to no score).   Then, St.Marys’ Paul O’Donoghue scored a goal from play in the fourth minute, followed by a point in the fifth minute. St. Marys scored their second goal from No.15 Darren Casey after seven minutes of play in this fast and furious game of football.  Cian O’Connor of Desmonds added a point from a free and it was now 1-03 to 2-01 in favour of the Marys.  Sean Cournane, wearing No. 30, then pointed from a free, followed by another from play and topped his play with a goal, to leave the score 3-03 to 1-03 with 19 minutes gone in the first half.   Desmonds only scored three more points from Stan Divane, Maurice O’Connell and a free from Cian O’Connor.  St. Marys added on another five points from Niall O’Driscoll, Anthony Cournane, and two from
Dan Daly and St. Marys’ Captain, Conor O’Shea, scored in injury time to see the score at half time:  Desmonds 1-06, St. Marys 3-08.

However, while Desmonds are still at the bottom of the division 1 table and looking for their first point of the season, great credit must be given to them, as they scored 12 points in the second half, which would normally win them any other match. The first six points were all from play and all within 11 minutes, two from Thomas Hickey, and one each from Cian
O’Connor, Pat Fitzgerald, Gearoid Leonard, and Cathal Hanifin.  St.Marys added a point in the eighth minute from Jack Daly and, at this stage, it was only a three point lead for the visitors.  Then, St. Marys upped their game and they scored two points from Dan Daly and they then scored the killer goal, against the run of play, by Darren Casey and it was now      4-11 to 1-13, after Desmonds’ Graham O’Connor scored a point for the home side on the 15^th minute.  From then on, Desmond’s were in full flight scoring five more points, four from Thomas Hickey (1 Play & 3 Frees) and Cian O’Connor, giving the home side hopes of clinching a draw.   St.Marys scored their last point from play on the 30th minute from Darren Casey and this was the insurance score they needed for the victory and this
was to see them travel back down to South Kerry with a win in the bag.