FOR the second week in a row, Kilcoo overcame the dismissal of a player to progress to the next round of the Down Senior Football Championship, but they needed extra-time to see off Castlewellan on a 2-14 to 0-12 scoreline last night.
Daryl Brannigan’s dismissal last week against Bryansford caused little trouble for Paul McIver’s side, but the loss of Conor Laverty nearly cost them dearly against Mark Doran’s team.
It was Castlewellan who started the brighter as they led 0-4 to 0-1 after 12 minutes with Daniel Morgan pointing twice from frees.
The Magpies started to come into it more and moved ahead for the first time when Jerome Johnston netted to put them 1-2 to 0-4 ahead. Laverty picked up his second yellow card just before the interval, but the county champions still led 1-5 to 0-6 at the break.
Donal McKibben and Morgan soon brought Castlewellan level and the sides shared four points before Sean Dornan put Castlewellan two points ahead with a couple of scores entering the final 13 minutes.
They failed to score again though as Paul Devlin (free) and Martin Devlin forced extra-time.
There was only one point in the first half of extra-time as Paul Devlin put Kilcoo 1-10 to 0-12 ahead, and they grabbed a crucial goal at the start of the second period as Gerard McEvoy found the net.
Kilcoo tagged on four more points as Castlewellan, who had Aidan Brogan dismissed late on, failed to add to their tally.
