Roche Emmets 2-10 Kilkerley Emmets 2-13

Kilkerley left Roche with the derby spoils on Tuesday night as the hosts fell to their second loss of the Division Two campaign.

A poor second quarter ultimately cost the boys in blue as goals by Tadhg McEnaney and Shane Lennon gave Kilkerley an advantage they never appeared likely to concede.

Roche had actually started the brighter with points by Dan O’Connell and Barry O’Hare, but once Kilkerley hit their stride, the lacklustre hosts limped to half-time.

A loose pass by Caoimhín Reilly saw the visitors capitalise with goal number one – McEnaney on the end of a ruthless break – and when Lennon received a pass following another flowing move down the heart of the home defence, Jamie O’Hare had little chance of keeping the former Louth star at bay.

Trailing 2-6 to 0-4 at half-time, the gap was nine in the early stages of the second half. Roche now had nothing to lose and when Barry O’Hare palmed in a three-pointer from Kevin Callaghan’s pass, the scoreboard read 2-9 to 1-7 in Kilkerley’s favour.

Too many forays forward yielded nothing for Roche throughout the fixture, whereas Kilkerley always seemed to strike at the ideal times.

Though Robert Mackin’s late major did give Paul Grier’s men home of a very unlikely comeback. But with Tadhg McEnaney a constant relief outlet up the field, the away side deservedly saw it out.

Roche: Jamie O’Hare; Gerard Browne, David Quigley, James McDonnell; Seán Dawe, Peter Lynch, Caoimhín Reilly; Glen Stewart (0-1), David O’Connell; Shane Byrne, Liam Carthy, Conor Carthy; Mark Byrne (0-1), Dan O’Connell (0-2), Barry O’Hare (1-5)

Subs: Kevin Callaghan (0-1) for David O’Connell, Mark Reynolds for C Carthy, Robert Mackin (1-0) for M Byrne, Harry O’Connell for Quigley

Kilkerley: Cillian Quigley; Cillian Mulligan, Barra McCarthy, Ciarán Clarke (0-1); Cormac Bellew, Patrick Murtagh, Tadhg Litchfield; James Fegan (0-1), Kieran Murtagh (0-1); Ciarán Bellew, Tadhg McEnaney (1-6), Conor Quigley (0-1); Ewan McEnteggart (0-1), Shane Lennon (1-1), Cathal Bellew

Subs: Seán Hand (0-1) for Lennon, Shaun McElroy for Ciarán Bellew, Aaron Crawford for Litchfield, Conal McEnaney for McEnteggart, James Shields for K Murtagh

Referee: Kevin Carroll