On a bitterly cold February morning, with snow adorning the cars of the Annacurra faithful that had made the trip, Annacurra faced Kiltegan in their first Division 1 Match of 2013. Under the new management of Richie Lynch and with a challenge match victory over the Wexford intermediate opposition of Gorey under their belt’s hopes were high but also wary because of the quality of our opposition.

Kiltegan started the better opening the scoring and by the second minute of play were leading two points to no score. Annacurra’s response came in the form of a well taken 45 from Mick O’Brien in the 6th minute before both teams exchanged points, Annacurra’s coming from a free taken by Clive Horan and the score’s stood at 3 points to 2 in Kiltegan’s favour by the 22nd minute. Annacurra were lucky to be only one point down at that stage as Kiltegan’s form in front of goal was poor and they were unlucky to miss several kickable points throughout the match.

That was how the scoreline would remain for the interval in what was a low scoring affair characterised more by waywardly kicked ball’s from both sides than by stellar footballing skills. It looked like it was going to be a close affair that would be decided by the break of a ball.

Annacurra made some changes early in the second half, Ciaran Byrne came on for James Keenan and Patrick O’Neil replaced Patrick Moule’s which released Nevan O’Sullivan to move forward to his most effective position in the half forward line. The Annacurra management also swopped Peter Clancy and Mick O’Brien with Peter taking up position in mid field and Mick to half forward. All the changes and move’s were good decisions with the players who came on making positive impacts and the positional switches paying off.

Ian McDonald levelled the scores with a well taken point from play on the 39th minute and Clive Horan then putting Annacurra ahead by a point on the 43rd minute but Kiltegan rallied and slotted over two well taken points in quick succession to take charge of the scoreboard and a one point advantage with a quarter of an hour remaining. Annacurra quickly respond to the challenge however with Ian stroking another ball over the bar to level the scores yet again.

Kiltegan then though showed their quality by taking the next two decisive scores in quick succession, the 52nd and 53rd minutes respectively saw Kiltegan gain a four point advantage with a point and then a goal when an Annacurra man was bundled off a ball and sloppy defence in the full back line let Kiltegan in for a well struck and timely goal that left Robert Fitzgerald in goal no chance.

This was too much for the Annacurra men to be able to overturn but to their credit they kept persevering and Pierce O’Brien made a welcome return replacing Jack O’Sullivan. Nevan O’Sullivan then showed his ability and scored two points to close out the match and reduce the deficit to 2 at the end.

The match was hotly contested and spilled over on more than one occasion with multiple players becoming involved in pushing and shoving matches. These episodes resulted in a player from each side being shown a red card and finishing the game on the line. Clive Horan also took a nasty facial injury which hopefully isn’t serious and he will be back to normal quickly. Get well soon Clive.

The game was also notable as the former Annacurra player Shane O’Keefe made his debut for Kiltegan having transferred from us this year. Thankfully Shane McAllister was able to marshal Shane O’Keefe and keep the former lively corner forward for Annacurra from scoring. It was for that contribution and his other efforts that Shane McAllister was the AnnacurraGAAClub.com man of the match. We would also like to extend our best wishes to Shane O’Keefe on his transfer to Kiltegan.

The result will be a disappointment for Annacurra but much of the performances of the players and the new manager Richie Lynch were encouraging. Here’s hoping that in the future we can keep control at the back and exploit the possession we created in the forwards.

Final Score: Kiltegan 1-6 Annacurra 7 points

Annacurra lined out as follows:
R Fitzgerald, L Moules, S O’Neill, S McAllister, N O’Sullivan, Martin O’Brien, James Kennan, P McDonald, Mick O’Brien, J O’Sullivan, A Horan, P Clancy, P Moules, I McDonald, C Horan

Substitutes used: Ciaran Byrne for James Keenan, Patrick O’Neill for Patrick Moules, Pierce O’Brien for Jack O’Sullivan

Substitutes not used: John O’Neil and Jack Keenan

Scorers:
Mick O’Brien: 1 point (45)
Clive Horan: 2 points (1 free and 1 from play)
Ian McDonald: 2 points (all from play)
Nevan O’Sullivan: 2 points (all from play)