ALL-IRELAND SFC QUALIFIERS ROUND 4
KILDARE 1-16 WICKLOW 2-9
JUST when we were growing accustomed to Kildare doing things the easy way Wicklow come along and remind us that life in the championship can be a perilous pursuit.
This game threw up two options for Kieran McGeeney’s side when Wicklow refused to accept they were an inferior side. Fight or flight?
With three minutes to go there were still just two points between the sides and having already netted two goals as well as threatening another handful there was plenty of reason to believe Kildare were facing down the barrel of a gun.
Just then Alan Smith got on the end of a fresh-legged move involving subs Eamon Callaghan and Robert Kelly, gently palming the ball to the bottom left corner after Kelly spotted him alone on the edge of the small square.
Wicklow were still chasing the game with the same 15 that had started this draining contest 90 minutes earlier at 7 o’clock on a Saturday night in Portlaoise that was almost set to become a date that Wicklow fans would never forget.
Mick O’Dwyer has been turning tradition on its head ever since he left his native Kerry 20 years ago to take the reigns in Kildare and it was those fans that had cheered his every move in the glory years of the late 90s that were struggling to find their voice for much of the game.
“Wicklow, Wicklow, Wicklow,” was the cheer that rang around O’Moore Park and for a county that prides itself on the enthusiasm of its support Kildare voices were strangely mute. However loud they shouted they couldn’t be heard above the Micklow choirs and for all the good football that Kildare played in 27 nervous minutes of the first half they couldn’t stay ahead on the score board.
For the opening quarter when it was anticipated that Kildare would have to endure their biggest test in the game there was a slow but expectant look to proceedings as the beaten Leinster finalists built up a 0-4 to 0-1 lead.
Dermot Earley kicked a beauty from 45 metres, set up James Kavanagh for a simple score in front of the posts and John Doyle kicked a free and a 45 to establish an early dominance that wouldn’t last for long.
With just 17 minutes gone on the clock Seanie Furlong pinched the ball from a wavering Kildare full-back line and toe-poked his shot past Tom Corley for a goal that brought the sides level.
Furlong quickly added a point from play just a minute later and by the time he brought his personal tally to 1-3 in the 27th minute his county were leading by a point, 1-4 to 0-6.
And yet for all the fear that Wicklow induced in their opponents they would remain scoreless for the next 20 minutes while those fearful foes went about their task with extra ammunition, hitting seven points in the same period, five of them from the 33rd minute of the first half until the half-time break was signalled just four minutes later.
For indicators of class that flurry of points before the break would have comforted those in white on the terraces.
Outstanding wing back Morgan O’Flaherty started that run of scores with a beauty from over 40 metres and it was added to by Doyle, sub Rob Kelly - who had come in for the unfortunate Ken Donnelly - the excellent Padraig O’Neill and the surprising Brian Flanagan who found himself far removed from his centre-back berth to lob over the ninth Kildare score from play in an opening half that left them with a four point cushion, 0-11 to 1-4.
So where did it all go wrong? Doyle and Earley added a point each after the break and a six point gap should have triggered a surge of confidence but it was drained from them like blood being drawn from a vein.
Wicklow hit 1-3 in the next nine minutes and more than once Tom Corley had to make a vital save when his defence was marked absent.
Tony Hannon’s goal in the 48th minute was struck from 20 yards with no defender in sight and the blue hordes began to believe again.
Yet this time the Kildare response was much more damaging, culminating with Alan Smith’s goal after Eamon Callaghan had kicked two points that kept their heads above water.
After the game the team headed for the comfort of the swimming pool in the Keadeen hotel and for all their woes - chief among them now is the injury to Mikey Conway that threatens to end his season - the realisation that Kildare were in an All-Ireland final was a feeling that soothed those weary limbs as much as the chlorinated water.
Kildare have avoided their banana skin, now it’s time to test how good they really are.
KILDARE: Tom Corley; Hugh McGrillen, Mick Foley, Emmet Bolton; Morgan O’Flaherty ( Brian Flanagan (.-.), Mikey Conway; Daryl Flynn, Dermot Earley (.-.); James Kavanagh ( Padraig O’Neill (.-.), Ronan Sweeney; Alan Smith (.-.), Ken Donnelly, John Doyle (.-., .fs, . ..). Subs: Robert Kelly ( for Donnelly, ..; Gary White for Conway (inj), h/t; Eamon Callaghan (.-.) for Sweeney, ..; Aidriú MacLochlainn for Foley, ..; Anthony Rainbow for O’Neill, ..
WICKLOW: Mervyn Travers; Ciaran Hyland, Dara " hAnnaidh, Steven Kelly; Patrick McWalter, Brian McGrath, Darren Hayden ( James Stafford (.-.), Thomas Walsh; Leighton Glynn, Tony Hannon (.-.), JP Dalton; Dean Odlum (.-.), Seanie Furlong (.-., .-.fs), Paul Earls (.-.)
REFEREE: Marty Duffy, Sligo