IRVINESTOWN .......................... 1-9

KINAWLEY .............................. 1-10

Kinawley travelled to Irvinestown on Sunday and succeeded in denting the unbeaten divisional leaders record by tumbling them to their first defeat of the season. The win for Kinawley spices up the promotion chase.

It didn't look like a Kinawley win in the opening twenty to twenty five minutes for the Brian Boru's were slow to come out of the starting blocks. It was a sharp and positive Irvinestown, looking very much like the top side in the division, who were commanding matters.

They foraged their way through for a five points haul, Gary Maguire, Manus O'Kane and Ronan Ormsby among the marksmen for them and with Kinawley restricted to a solitary point from a free by Sean Leonard (Rua). Another Irvinestown record to copperfasten their place as undisputed league pacemakers, was on the cards.

But in the lead up to the interval the Irvinestown effort stumbled and Kinawley nudged themselves back into the picture with three successive frees knocked over by Leonard and the interval gap was reduced to a mere one point.

Kinawley had been coming strong in the minutes prior to the break and on the resumption they continued in similar vein. They were to hit a prolific patch of scoring which essentially won them the game. They popped over a couple of points to take the lead, were to be reduced to fourteen players, but simply shrugged off that handicap to stretch further in front. They really grabbed the initiative when they collected a goal. A high ball tossed into the Irvinestown goal area was to be touched to the net by Matthew Drumm an a six point lead yawned.

Manus O'Kane answered with a much needed Irvinestown score but Kinawley were still on fire and they had a couple of more points to go seven clear.

Finally the Kinawley stranglehold was ended and Irvinestown over the closing quarter managed a fiery rally that almost bridged the deficit.

The home side had scores from Gary Maguire and Manus O'Kane but the crucial return was the 57th minute goal from Benny McCaffrey. An exciting finale but Kinawley hung on for a win which has opened up this division.

For Irvinestown, Tiarnan Daly was sound at half back, Shane Goan had a lot of influence in the middle of the park and Gary Maguire was best up front. For Kinawley, Niall Bogue and Brendan McHugh featured in the rearguard with Shaun Doherty and Sean Leonard the most consistent up front.

Referee Thomas Boyle Brookeboro