Byrne's mighty block saves the day

By the grace of God, the man upstairs one suspects under firm instruction from the newly arrived Micko, and in no small part thanks to Brian Byrne’s fingertips, Kildare got there in the end.

In true Lilywhite fashion it was uncomfortable, excruciatingly so, and we’re not talking about the broiling Croke Park heat.

Kildare never do it easily and here they showed that trait in spades. Limerick too played a huge part in a spectacular helter-skelter decider that ebbed and flowed, momentum switching back and forth from first minute to last.

We’ll come back to Brian’s sacred fingertips, but Kildare won primarily thanks to a previously elusive knack of shooting two-pointers from play, some heroic last-ditch defending and a goalkeeper having the game of his life in fulfilling old-fashioned shot-stopping duties.

Darragh Kirwan was man-of-the-match with eight points from play, a tally that included two booming two-pointers into the Davin End, a fisted point from just outside the Croke Park Hotel and crucial second half scores off every foot available to him. After an injury-hampered stop-start campaign he came good when we most needed it.

It was no one man effort, though, and you could run through at least five or six others and make a case.

Alex Beirne led through action and determination, and his first half goal was as classy as it was needed.

Captain Kevin Feely, in temperatures that didn’t help the up-and-down nature of his midfield role, did Kevin Feely things in the way few others can match.

Colm Dalton, bless him, ran relentlessly. Forest Gump on steroids, contributing two points and franking one of the most impressive senior debut seasons we’ve seen in Kildare for a long while.

David Hyland deserves a mention too. Although management will have to have a think about our defensive structures, with the pacey gnat Danny Neville and colleagues free to carve chasms down our middle far too often, that’s not down to one man, and ‘Hylo’ on more than one occasion put his body on the line. A block here, a nudge there, a shooter denied a nailed-on score.

We could go on. Brian McLoughlin’s cameo (again), Tommy Gill, Ryan Sinkey, Callum Bolton. The full-back line, fingers plugging the dyke time and again.

Of course, it was far from perfect and while Limerick are a fine team and came into it with a Division 4 promotion in the bag, Brian Flanagan will know his blend of a few gnarly old hands and unblemished youth have a massive step up facing them next year.

You’d imagine any Sam Maguire team would have put the Treaty men to bed well before the end. But that’s for next year. Besides, Kildare never did ruthless and hence we somehow managed to find ourselves clinging on from a position of strength in the closing minutes.

Credit Limerick for their recovery from a seven-point deficit in the opening half, Kildare themselves having shrugged off the set-back of Cillian Fahy’s early goal that trumped Bolton’s sublime two-pointer.

Beirne’s goal that re-asserted our authority was well-signposted by the Naas man. Great to see a Kildare player bear down on goal with one thing on his mind. Goalkeeper Josh Ryan knew what was coming but Beirne’s side footed finish was crisp, decisive and un-Kildare like.

But Limerick, with the classy Neville playing ducks and drakes with whoever was detailed to mark him (answers on a postcard), recovered from conceding 1-7 without reply and a four-point lead was in no way comfortable for supporters of a nervous predisposition (and what Kildare fan isn’t?) as they headed for the much-needed interval fluid intake and shady concourses.

Sinkey, the team’s youngest tyro until Eoin Cully arrived, both fresh out of this year’s ‘20s, grabbed the game by the scruff of its collar on the restart with two wonderful points off that wand of a left boot of his, but Limerick were stubborn and when they overloaded Burke’s kick out, they found a careless Kildare had left the back door unlocked.

Killian Ryan had time to size up his options and although the game’s most active fingertips, Byrne’s, got a connection to his shot, it had enough impetus to find the net.

At that point, seasoned Lilywhite watchers feared the inevitable. Expected it probably. They’d seen the movie so many times and didn’t fancy the sequel.

Nor did McLoughlin, though. Released from the bench, no doubt with instructions to simply repeat his semi-final heroism, ‘Maccie’ found himself primed three yards outside the arc with space to play with.

One swing of that left peg and the leather was sweetly dissecting the posts at a Hill 16 end hued white for the occasion. Draw match.

Although Limerick edged ahead again with the next score, it was Kildare who had the legs and composure to build a match-winning margin though goal chances came and went. Cully had run into a brick wall in Mark McCarthy after evading Josh Ryan and Dalton failed to connect his brain to clumsy hands after a superb one-two with Jack McKevitt.

Feely returned from a flight into azure skies with the ball as hand-luggage and a simple tap-over mark his reward. Gill, appropriately tanned looking for the scorcher that was in it, skied one between the posts he had little right to attempt.

On 63 minutes they edged four clear with Dalton’s neatly fisted point and the finish line was in sight. Though perhaps it was a mirage in the heat. Limerick kicked a couple of soul-crushing wides but there was still time for the sort of drama that inevitably latches onto Kildare football.

Perhaps the temperatures finally got to Beirne but with two minutes on the clock we earned an eminently kickable free to the left of the posts about 35 metres out. Whether under instruction or not Beirne elected for a short pass backwards, but the ball found its way quickly back to the Naas man in front of the posts. Kick it dead, Alex, just kick it dead.

It dropped short and goalkeeper Ryan launched Limerick’s late bid for salvation with both sets of players dead on their feet. Naughton pointed a free and there was the dreaded one score between them.

The big screen had implored supporters to slather on the suncream and take on regular fluids but the water breaks of Covid past somehow weren’t deemed necessary for amateur players. Poor form.

But back to the denouement. Limerick’s cavalry reached Kildare territory far too easily once more and although the angle was narrow Darragh Murray got a low shot away and on target. Burke to the rescue once more, but he could only direct it back out into the penalty area where Rory O’Brien eagerly gobbled up possession and launched the leather (is it still leather?) goalwards.

Battle-weary Kildare watchers knew what was coming, it was simply a matter of which corner of the net rippled. As the hooter sounded as if to mark the inevitable doom, Hylo and Fingers Byrne launched themselves, as if to sweep a day-dreaming toddler from the path of an unseen car.

And lo a couple of Naas digits made the briefest but most glorious connection to divert the course of history.

Kildare’s emancipation from Tier 2 was complete and Micko, a rolled match programme tucked under his heavenly wings, beamed the first of two broad grins on this day from the heavens, his beloved Kingdom later providing a fitting encore.