NFL Division One: Kerry 1-12 Derry 0-10
UNDERSTRENGTH Derry, with only five of their championship team on duty, were no match for a fitter Kerry side at Killarney.
Derry had their chances when Kerry played poorly for much of the first half but failed to take them. Anthony Tohill was badly missed by Derry at midfield, where Henry Downey and Dermott Heaney laboured for much of the hour against the Kerry pairing of Dara O’Se and Donal Daly.
Kerry were in front 0-7 to 0-4 at the break, but the score could have been much closer as Derry wing forward Ronan Rocks missed two chances from frees just before the half-time whistle.
On the resumption, Kerry continued to improve with centre forward John Crowley exposing gaps in the Derry defence, while the Derry forwards were finding it very difficult to make headway against a Kerry backline in which Seamus Moynihan and Liam Flaherty were outstanding. Well on top at this stage, the home side snatched the all important goal in the 41st minute when wing forward Denis O’Dwyer slipped inside the Kerry defence to boot a low hard shot to the corner of the net well beyond the reach of Davie O’Hare.
Kerry: P O’Leary, K Burns, B McCarthy, M Hassett, S Moynihan (0-2), L Flaherty, F O’Se, D O’Se, D Daly, D O’Dwyer (1-1), J Crowley (0- 2), B O’Shea, J O)’Shea (0-1), D O Cinneide (0- 4), G Farrell. Subs P Laide (0-1) for McCarthy, M F Russell (0-1) for Farrell, W Kirby for Daly. Derry: D O’Hare, K McKeever, J McBride, E McKeever, P McFlynn, R McGuckin, G Coleman, D Heaney, H Downey (0-1), G Magill (0- 3), R Boylan, R Rocks (0-4), S McGuckin (0-1), D Dougan, D McIvor. Subs P Farrell (0-1) for T McGuckin. Referee: Paddy Russell (Tipperary)
NFL Division One: Tyrone 2-6 Donegal 2-6
A LAST-GASP equaliser from wing halfback Damien Diver gave Donegal their second draw in a row and a deserved share of the spoils in this north-west derby at Omagh.
Diver’s excellent angled shot from 30 yards sailed over to level the scores on the 60th minute but with the referee playing three tense minutes of injury time, both sides had chances to snatch the game at the death.
This game was not exactly a classic encounter but the excitement of the last quarter of an hour more than made up for the catalogue of errors which preceded it.
Donegal had Tyrone on the rack at the end with debutant Brian McLaughlin failing to capitalise on a blunder by Tyrone’s stand-in keeper Plunkett McCallan.
The youngster, who had an impressive hour scoring one goal and two points, blazed the ball high and wide in front of an open goal to dash Donegal’s hope of a victory and it was definitely the home side who looked more relieved to hear the final whistle.
Tyrone: P McCallan, D Hagan, P O’Neill, C Lawn, R McGarrity (0-1), N Donnelly, B Maginn, F Logan (1-0), P Canavan, S McLaughlin (1-0), E McCaffrey (0-1), S Lawn, C McBride, E Gormley (0-3), B Gormley (0-1). Subs S McCallan for S Lawn (41 mins); S Conway for E McCaffrey (46 mins). Donegal: G Walsh, P McGinley, M Gallagher, J Cunningham, D Diver (0-1), M Crossan, M Shovlin, M Coll (0-1), B Murray, J Ruane, T Boyle (1-1), O Reid (0-1), B Roper, B McLaughlin (1-2), R McLaughlin. Subs J B Gallagher for J Ruane (46 mins); D McNamara for O Reid (51 mins)
Referee: Adrian Walsh (Dublin)
Olympic middleweight star, Brian Magee has been forced to withdraw from the Ulster team bound for the Commonwealth Boxing Championships in South Africa on November 12.
And reigning Ulster senior champ, Colin McFarland has pulled out of tonight’s Commonwealth trial contest at the Dockworkers Social Club in Belfast.
His coach, Micky O’Neill, has lodged a protest with the Ulster Provincial Council on the grounds that McFarland as current champion shouldn’t have to box a trial.
Magee, a 20-year-old from the Holy Trinity Club in Turf Lodge, who reached the quarter-final stages of the Atlanta Olympic Games in July is to have a knee operation at the Blackrock Clinic outside Dublin next week. He is expected to be out of the ring until the New Year and said he is bitterly disappointed at missing the Johannesburg tournament.
“I went down to see a specialist, Dr Brian Hurson, at the Blackrock Clinic and had the knee x-rayed. I couldn’t believe it when he said he wanted me to go in next week for the operation,” Magee said
