By Katrina Brennan

IT could’ve gone either way but in the end Kinawley manager Dom Corrigan was the one smiling.

A one-point winning margin against Ederney meant Kinawley finished second in the table and most importantly secured a home quarter-final against the winners of Sunday’s re-fixed game between Belnaleck and Roslea.

“I thought both teams went at it; a fantastic attitude from both. We controlled the first half, they were the better side in the second half so there wasn’t much between it, we just happened to score one more point than they got against the breeze,” said Corrigan.

“The thing that pleased me most of all was the character shown because with a point down, against the breeze, with time virtually up and we hit the last two, so that’s nice moving forward to know that there’s that type of character in the team.”

Kinawley showed plenty of character but experience and game management were key to this victory, led by Shaun Doherty in midfield. The Kinawley man picked off two brilliant points and really controlled a lot of Kinawley’s play in around the centre, making a fine catch towards the end that set up the winning point.

“Shaun is a super player,” said Corrigan, “once you have it, you don’t lose it. Shaun brings great experience to the team and he’s a great man around the dressing room as well. So it’s massively important having Shaun contributing like that, he had a fantastic game and hopefully he’ll get credit for that.

“People say ‘Shaun is that and Shaun is that, and he’s not up to it anymore’ well, Shaun is a very good senior footballer and we’re delighted to have him and I know he’s going to push on now and aim to be better the next day,” said Corrigan adamantly.

Kinawley lost Conor Murphy in the opening couple of minutes to an accidental clash which was a big blow to lose such a physical and pacey player but Corrigan is hopeful he’ll be okay for the quarter final.