Tyrone SFC: Coalisland defeat Kildress to make semi-finals

As the final scoreline suggests, Coalisland experienced little difficulty in making it through to the Senior Championship semi-finals when they had an emphatic win over Kildress at Edendork on Saturday afternoon.

It was a contest that the Fianna controlled from start to finish and their reward is a mouth-watering clash with neighbours and old rivals Clonoe next weekend.

Coalisland had the wind at their backs in the first half and they set down a marker right from the throw in with Stephen McNally fisting the ball over the bar with only a dozen seconds gone on the clock.

McNally, Brian Toner, Padraig Hampsey and Dermot Thornton all added points before the latter blasted the ball to the top right hand corner of the net for a brilliant 15 th minute goal.

Even at this stage the writing was on the wall for a Kildress side who are bottom of the division one table. Martin Grimes opened the Wolfe Tones’ account with a fine point into the wind before Niall Quinn got a score for them as well but that was the sum total of their first half efforts. Cathaoir Quinn and Thornton tagged on points to leave Coalisland well on top at halftime leading 1-9 to 0-2.

Kildress needed a good start to the second half but the opposite happened as Coalisland put the game to bed. The half was only two minutes old when McNally burst through to finish in style low to the bottom right hand corner of the net. Hampsey added a point for the winners before McNally bagged his second goal after only four minutes.

There was no way back for Kildress at this stage and it was only a matter of what the winning margin would be.

In the 7th minute Des Treacy won a penalty which Quinn converted but it was only a consolation score at this stage. A couple of minutes later Thornton got his second major of the game despite the best efforts of Kildress keeper Gerard Grimes to try and keep it out.

McNally, Hampsey, Plunkett Kane and Thornton all added points as Coalisland continued to dominate proceedings. Treacy got a Kildress point but that was cancelled out by one from substitute Cormac O’Hagan before Thornton took his personal haul to 2-5. Quinn had the final say of the game for Kildress but its Coalisland who march into their second semi-final in a row.

Coalisland scorers: Dermot Thornton 2-5, Stephen McNally 2-3, Padraig Hampsey 0-3, Brian Toner 0-2, Plunkett Kane 0-1, Philip Toner 0-1, Cathaoir Quinn 0-1, Cormac O’Hagan 0-1

Kildress scorers: Niall Quinn 1-2, Frank McGurk 0-1, Martin Grimes 0-1, Des Treacy 0-1

Referee: Martin Conroy (Moy)