Kilcar 1-16

Scotstown 1-6

Orla Bannon reports from Clones

PADDY MCBREARTY WAS the star turn of Kilcar’s shock Ulster club triumph over hot favourites Scotstown at Clones.

The Donegal forward, who’s nominated for an All Star this year, has had an incredible 2017 and hitting eight points to set up a mouth-watering Ulster SFC semi-final showdown with holders Slaughtneil.

Scotstown are three-in-a-row Monaghan champions and had plenty of experience at this level and they got an early goal by Conor McCarthy to set them on their way.

Maybe the goal came too soon because after the opening 10 minutes, they were torn apart, succumbing to a McBrearty masterclass.

He nailed 0-7 in the first half with Ryan McHugh also growing in influence as the game wore on, finishing with a five-point haul.

McCarthy’s well-taken goal came after just four minutes.

Kieran Hughes won the kickout, launched it in towards McCarthy in the corner who cut inside onto his left and buried it past Eamonn McGinley.

Ross McKenna’s lucky bounce over the bar made it 1-1 to 0-1 after 10 minutes – but in the next 20 minutes they went from three points up to seven points down.

McBrearty turned into a one-man wrecking ball on a Scotstown defence that was ill-equipped to deal with him.

He scored seven first-half points, including four from play, several of them from close to the sideline.

Everything he hit seemed to split the uprights with just one errant shot dropping wide.
They drew level with a close-range point from his younger brother Stephen, at 1-3 to 0-6 in the 20th minute.

A couple of minutes Eoin McHugh got on the end of a move straight off the training ground for a Kilcar goal.

Ryan McHugh took a short free to Paddy McBrearty rushing out with his back to goal, he popped the ball into the chest of Eoin McHugh who darted through the gap and drilled the ball low into the far corner.

Scotstown were getting turned over and losing kickouts with Mark McHugh picking up a lot of breaks around the middle.

He set up his brother Ryan for an easy score who then added a quick second, shifting easily onto his right foot under no pressure, to make it 1-10 to 1-3 at the break.

Scotstown briefly threatened a comeback just after the break with McCarthy and McKenna adding their second points but from there, Kilcar bossed it and killed the game.

Ciaran McGinley and evergreen retired Donegal player Michael Hegarty nailed points to keep the scoreboard ticking over while Scotstown raided for goals, with no success.

Kilcar shut the game down in a low-key final quarter, Ryan McHugh hitting the last three points of a convincing victory.

Scorers for Scotstown – C McCarthy 1-02, R McKenna 0-02, S Carey 0-01, R Beggan 0-01 (f)

Scorers for Kilcar – P McBrearty 0-08 (4f), R McHugh 0-05 (2f), E McHugh 1-00, S McBrearty 0-01, M Hegarty 0-01, C McGinley 0-01

Scotstown

1 Rory Beggan

3 William Carroll
4 Sean Mohan

2 Fergal McPhillips

5 Donal Morgan
6 Damien McArdle
7 Emmett Caulfield

8 Frank Caulfield
9 Kieran Hughes

10 James Hamill
11 Shane Carey
22 Ross McKenna

30 Paul Sherlock
14 Darren Hughes
15 Conor McCarthy

Substitutes:

12 Dermot McCrudden for Hamill (40)
13 Orin Heaphy for McKenna (BC, 43)
23 Michael McCarville for Carey (57)

Kilcar

1 Eamonn McGinley

2 Barry McGinley
3 Conor McShane
4 Pauric Carr

6 Michael Hegarty

5 Ryan McHugh
7 Barry Shovlin

8 Ciaran McGinley
9 Mark McHugh

17 Andrew McClean
11 Eoin McHugh
12 Conor Doherty

13 Stephen Shovlin
14 Patrick McBrearty
15 Stephen McBrearty

Substitutes:

10 Matthew McClean for Doherty (41)
18 Mark Sweeney for A McClean (51)
19 Ashley Carr for S McBrearty (55)
16 Aodhan McGinley for P McBrearty (60)

Referee: Ciaran Branagan (Down)

***************

Elsewhere in the Ulster club SFC quarter-finals, Cavan Gaels were 1-19 to 0-10 winners over Lamh Dhearg at Kingspan Breffni Park. 

Subscribe to The42 podcasts here:

Rhode lose their cool late on as 36-year-old ‘Beano’ McCormack leads Portlaoise to victory

Dr Crokes survive slow start to beat Clonmel despite the absence of Colm Cooper