Mullinabreena suffered their first defeat of the season in Dromard in the Kiernan Cup. St Pats had the upper hand in a close fought encounter played in atrocious conditions yesterday evening (14/4)

Mullinabreena lined out with the injured Denis Gormalley and Ronan Tansey. The  team lined out as follows Francis Brennan, Eugene Henry, David Hosey, Anthony MacGowan, Barry Kivlehan, Trevor McGuinn, Johnnie MacGowan, Padraig McHugh, Patrick Gormalley, Martin Gormalley, Daniel Davey, Ollie Lee, Sean Gormalley, Peadar Gallagher, Michael Hosey. Subs Eanna Scully, Paul Kivlehan and Peter Gormalley!

St Pats won the toss and elected to play with the gale force breeze and driving rain in the opening half. They got off to a great start with a point from play immediately after the throw in. Mullinabreena fought back bravely and pressure from the forwards resulted in a free kick which Daniel Davey duly converted.  St Pats added further points from play but a resolute Mullinabreena defence and midfield made their task difficult. Peadar Gallagher opened his account and Daniel Davey followed up with another free. Mullinabreena battled well against the difficult conditions and the score with five minutes remaining in the first half was 0.6  0.4 in favour of the home side.

Peadar Gallagher forced a fine save from the St Pats goalkeeper following good work in the middle of the park from Padraig McHugh and Patrick Gormalley. Trevor McGuinn then combined well with Johnnie MacGowan and Peadar Gallagher to provide Johnnie MacGowan with another goal chance. Johnnie was to be denied once again by the St Pats net minder. The crucial score of the game followed a mistake in the Mullinabreena defence which gave possession to the incoming St Pats midfielder and his shot gave Francis Brennan no chance in the Mullinabreena goal. The half time score was 1.6 , 0.4 in favour of St Pats. 

Mullinabreena faced an uphill struggle in the second half to reduce the deficit and Peadar Gallagher pointed early to give cause for optimism. St Pats responded immediately with a well taken point. The Mullinabreena midfield were dominant at this stage but the possession was not converted into scores and this was to prove costly. Daniel Davey added a brace of points and the excellent Barry Kivlehan added a fine long range point. Michael Hosey had a long range effort rebound off the upright and Martin Gormalley converted the rebound. At this stage there was just two points between the sides but some wasteful shooting from frees and play gave victory to St Pats. Eanna Scully was introduced for Martin Gormalley and Paul Kivlehan replaced Michael Hosey. 

This was a good game played in a sporting manner in very difficult conditions. Mullinabreena's next outing is on Easter Monday against St Michaels in the same competition. A win is necessary for further progress in the Kiernan Cup. 

Good luck to the Sligo team against Clare today in their last league game. A win today will secure a league semi final place for Sligo!!