Champions Castledaly stunned

A strange goal in the last minute of normal time proved decisive as Killucan opened their Westmeath SFC campaign with a surprise win over reigning champions Castledaly in an entertaining game at Cusack Park last Sunday evening. Despite the game being played in truly miserable conditions, with fading light and constant drizzle prevailing, and a small attendance present, this was a rip-roaring tie, with the fortunes of the challengers and champions yo-yoing throughout. Ray Smyth"s men (wearing the jerseys of the Raharney hurling club, who are also under his tutelage this year) looked likely winners when ahead by seven points at the interval. However, Padraig Farrell"s troops (who also wore a changed outfit) are not going to hand back the Flanagan Cup without a fight this year and a wonderful comeback saw them leading by a point with time running out. In the end, a misjudgement by one of last year"s heroes, goalkeeper James Kinahan, allowed James Nugent in for a dramatic winning goal, which will give their championship aspirations a terrific boost. Killucan started the livelier and a brace of James Nugent points had them two points to the good with less than three minutes on the clock. The first came when he converted a very difficult free and the second was a fine effort from play, with a goal looking briefly on the cards. Michael Duffy (Castledaly) and Paul Greville (Killucan) then exchanged points from left-footed frees, before the winners took a decisive lead with a very well worked goal. Paul Greville picked out the in-rushing James Nugent with a wonderfully perceptive pass and the former Westmeath player finished to the net in style for a great goal. This score spurred the champions into action and a Michael Duffy free and a lovely point by Brendan Kelly reduced the gap to a goal by the 12th minute. The respective number 15s, Paul Briody and Brendan Kelly, swapped points before Alan Doyle did well to get a close-range flick to a Paul Greville free to put the winners ahead by 1-5 to 0-4 in the 21st minute. Five minutes later, Michael Duffy rounded off a patient Castledaly move with a neat point. However, the lads in blue and white finished the first moiety strongly and a fine shot on the run by Conor Jordan increased their advantage. It got even better for the winners in the first minute of added-time, the promising Cormac Boyle doing well under pressure to fly-kick the ball to the net, with referee Pat Fox playing a good "advantage". At the break, Killucan were full value for their seven points lead, on a scoreline of 2-6 to 0-5. Before he threw in the ball for the restart, the referee booked Castledaly"s Gordon Duffy for an incident at the end of the first half. However, the Flanagan Cup holders were fired up for the second half and they rattled off five unanswered points between the second and the 12th minutes. A 35-metre free from M.J. McLoughlin was quickly followed by a brace from Michael Duffy (the first from a free). Half-time substitute and former Westmeath panellist, Russell Casey added a fine point under pressure and a neat score from Paul Kelly soon left the gap at just two points. Killucan badly needed a score to re-settle them and it duly arrived at the midpoint of the half, Paul Greville doing very well to win possession before dissecting the posts. The winners then seemed to have been let off the hook when Paul Kelly appeared to have been fouled perilously close to the large parallelogram. However, the referee threw in the ball - perhaps for retaliation or dissent? In the next passage of play, M.J. McLoughlin pointed a "45" and a converted free from Michael Duffy had the margin down to the bare minimum in the 18th minute. A great effort from Paul Greville faded tantalisingly wide, while at the other end a snap-shot from Brendan Kelly came back off the junction of the crossbar and upright. When M.J. McLoughlin and Michael Duffy converted two routine frees in the 23rd and 26th minutes respectively, it looked like Castledaly had carved out a victory, when taking the lead for the first time at exactly the right moment. But when James Kinahan fumbled Shane Leavy"s seemingly innocuous kick in the 30th minute, an alert James Nugent was on hand to guide the ball to the net. Castledaly threw the proverbial kitchen sink into attack but they failed to add to their tally, leaving Killucan with an invaluable brace of points in the bag. KILLUCAN: David Bryan; Donal Carey, Francis Boyle, Tony Doyle; Niall Flanagan, John Shaw, Rory O"Reilly; Conor Jordan (0-1), Shane Leavy; James Nugent (2-2, 0-1f), Stephen Morley, Cormac Boyle (1-0); Paul Greville (0-2, 1f), Alan Doyle (0-1), Paul Briody (0-1). Subs: Brendan McKeogh (for Briody, 45 mins), Daniel Riggs (for C.Boyle, 54), Christopher Flanagan (for O"Reilly, 56). CASTLEDALY: James Kinahan; Michael Gavin, Niall O"Neill, Ciaran Henson; Tommy Warburton, Derek Heavin, Adrian Kelly; Gordon Duffy, Niall Duffy; Enda Kelly, M.J. McLoughlin (0-3, 0-1 "45", 2f), Paul Kelly (0-1); Michael Duffy (0-7, 5f), James Galvin, Brendan Kelly (0-2). Subs: Russell Casey (0-1) for A.Kelly, h-t), Ken Larkin for Henson (h-t). REFEREE: Pat Fox (Rosemount).