Derrylin 0-11 Kinawley 0-12

Kinawley just edged out close rivals Derrylin with a one-point win at O’Connell Park on Friday evening as Tomás Corrigan hit 0-07 for the visiting side.

It was Kinawley’s first game of the year with no game last week while Derrylin began their 2024 campaign with a defeat to Devenish.

Manager Sean Donnelly was satisfied with his side’s performance after last weekend’s defeat in Garrison.

“Well, it was an improvement from the first week, that was our second game back,” he said.

“Maybe that was the difference, we had a few men back that we didn’t have for the Devenish game, I suppose that helped us.”

Just two points separated the sides when they met in the Division One last July at the same venue and it would be another tight encounter between the sides on Friday night with not much to give at fulltime.

Jake Smith led the Derrylin scoring as he converted the majority of their scores while Diarmuid Owens also kicked two points in the opening half of the game.

Free kicks cost the O’Connells as Tomás Corrigan took full advantage by helping himself to some early scores.

Shaun Doherty and Ciaran Breen were also on target as Kinawley took a 0-08 to 0-07 lead in at halftime.

It would be a low-scoring second-half with both sides kicking just four points and not much to separate them.

Smith again led the way for Derrylin with some fine scores while there was also a point from Kian Prior.

Niall Bogue, Sean McManus and Dylan Boyle split the posts for the visitors as Corrigan also added scores to keep them just ahead of their opponents as they went three points up heading into the closing stages.

Derrylin threw men forward in an attempt to get back into and tried to find a goal but had to settle for two late points as manager Donnelly admitted they should have taken more points instead of trying to find the net as they just ran out of time in the end.

Derrylin face another tough test in the form of Ederney this weekend, with the St. Joseph’s winning their opening match over Enniskillen.

Kinawley will host Devenish, who hit nine goals in their fixture with Enniskillen last weekend.