Churchill 3-22  Knocknagoshel  1-09

Churchill ran out comfortable winners in their final league game of the year in near perfect conditions in Churchill on Saturday evening, thanks to an impressive second half display of football.

Churchill opened the scoring early in the first half with a well taken point from Michael O’Brien, followed quickly by an Ivan Parker free. Knocknagoshel replied with a free of their own from Niall Barrett and a fine score from distance from Barkley Rahilly. Parker and keeper Eoin O’Brien, with a 45, restored Churchill’s 2 point advantage. Barrett was picking up a lot of breaks for the visitors and added another point, but Churchill had the lion’s share of the possession and, after some wasteful shooting early on, began to work the scoreboard. Michael O’Brien added 4 more before the break and there were points too for Sean Donnellan and Ivan Parker. Knocknagoshel kept in touch with 2 more points from Rahilly and David Cahill and went in at the break trailing by 5 points, 0-10 to 0-05.

 Churchill scored early in the second with another 45 from O’Brien, but Barrett responded with 2 frees. Churchill then scored 5 points without reply, including 2 from Pa McCarthy, but credit to Knocknagoshel they responded with a goal and a point, the goal coming from wing back Denis Roche, to again cut the margin to 5 points. However, after the goal Churchill began to dominate around the middle of the field through Matt Finnerty, Mitchel Holland and Sean Donnellan, and in a ten minute spell they scored 2-03 without reply to open up a 12 point lead an end the tie as a contest, with the goals coming from Michael O’Brien and JJ Prior. Pa McCarthy added a third goal for the hosts and points from O’Brien and Dara O’Shea near the end finished out the game with a scoreline of Churchill 3-21 ; Knocknagoshel 1-09.

 This was Churchill’s final game in the Co League as they have a bye in the final round, and puts them into third place on 16 points. However, with other teams yet to play, they will be looking for results elsewhere to go their way to keep alive their hopes of a promotion playoff later in the season.

Churchill: Eoin O’Brien 0-02, Alan McElliggott, Garret Walsh, Des McCarthy, JJ Prior 1-01, Cathal Rodgers, Ciaran Carmody, Mitchell Holland, Matt Finnerty, Sean Donnellan 0-02, Pa McCarthy 1-03, Tomas Lenihan, Michael O’Brien 1-08, Ivan Parker 0-04, Dara O’Shea 0-01.

Knocknagoshel: Mike Casey, Michael Murphy, Michael Brosnan, Cillian O’Connor, Denis Roche 1-00, Gary Dohanany, Conor Sheehan, Kieran Downey, Michael Walsh, Billy Rahilly, Niall Barrett 0-07, Barkley Rahilly 0-01, Stephen O’Connell, John O’Keeffe, David Cahill 0-01