Doran's goal sends Kildare into Leinster Minor Football Final
The Clane contingent on the Kildare minor football team - twin brothers Jack and Charlie Doran, either side of Eoghan Lyons Photo: Clane GAA
Jack Doran pounced for an opportunistic and decisive 53rd minute goal as Kildare ground out a hard-fought win in a Leinster Minor Football Championship semi-final against Louth at the Hunterstown Rovers GAA grounds on Tuesday evening.
There certainly was an element of fortune in the manner that the ball fell for Doran but he had to be in the right place and hold his nerve to be able to take the opportunity at hand.
The scores were level at 0-9 each when Cian Kehoe’s shot was half blocked and spun up into the air. Doran had to keep his eye on the ball as it dropped out of the sky and also on the advancing goalkeeper Aaron O’Donaghue, but he did it brilliantly and palmed the ball to the net for the game’s most important moment.
“It was a good moment, right place, right time,” said Clane’s Doran after the game, before explaining what was going through his head in that instant.
“I saw Cian (Keogh) running and I thought, he's taking the shot. One of the Louth lads blocked it and it fell right in, nice into me and I slapped it into the goals,” said the delighted youngster.
Doran’s twin brother Charlie is the captain of the team and said that once he saw the ball dropping nicely to his brother that he knew what was coming next.
“He’s naturally a forward, a full forward since he was young. He’s only been wing-back this year. I knew well that he’d stick it in the back of the net,” said Charlie.
It was the kind of game that whoever got the first goal was going to be favourites to go on and win the game but hosts Louth will look back on a succession of wides. However, even though they ended with 14 shots off target, some praise should go to the Kildare players who put their shooters under pressure and forced them into taking the shots on from difficult positions.
Although the wind gradually died down, it was quite stiff into Kildare faces during the opening 15 minutes so they did really well to be 0-3 to 0-0 ahead thanks to points from Eoghan Lyons, Páidí Ryan and Jack Reilly. Those 15 minutes set the theme for the majority of the game with Louth having plenty of the ball but they had a series of wides before Donnacha Reidy opened their account in the 17th minute.
Connell Kelly added their second point two minutes later.
An excellent point by Greg Kelly and another Reilly free, either side of a two- point Connell Kelly free, left Kildare ahead by the minimum.
Reidy ensured the home team got back level just before half-time when he made it 0-5 apiece.
Crucially, Kildare got themselves in front early in the second through points from Lyons and a Cian Keogh effort when he stayed going even after being fouled and neatly scored.
Louth had a host of chances through the second half but their best came in the 35th minute when they slickly moved the ball through the Kildare backline to Mark Smith but his effort was somehow blocked behind for a 45. There were a number of Kildare bodies throwing themselves in the way but it appeared to be Jamie Flood taking most of the congratulations from his team-mates for the crucial intervention.
Kelly did land the resulting 45 but Kildare answered back with two almost identical scores in the space of a minute from pacy corner-forward Aidan Tobin as the game entered the final quarter.
Cillian Duff, Brian O’Neill and Duff again scored to level for the home side as they enjoyed their best spell of the game but they weren’t able to get their noses in front and Doran’s goal seven minutes from time put Kildare firmly in the ascendancy.
Afterwards, Charlie Doran referenced early season runs around the Curragh building up the team’s fitness and that showed as they managed the game in the final minutes.
Kelly’s free brought Louth to within two points but it was Kildare who finished strongly and they got the last points of the game through a Logan Tennyson free, which he won himself, and then an excellent injury time effort by Fiacha Martin.
Kildare now face a Meath side who they defeated in the group stages in the final on Friday 22 May. Having beaten a Louth side they lost to in the groups, Kildare won’t focus too much on their previous Championship encounter this year with the Royals but they should go forward into the final with a lot of confidence after two impressive knockout stage wins against Westmeath and Louth.
It's just the seventh time that the county has reached Leinster finals in the minor and U20/U21 grade in the same year and after the provincial win of the U20s earlier this month, the minors will be looking to complete just the third double across the two grades after similar successes in 1965 and 2013.
Joe Crotty (St Kevins); Luke Shanahan (Sallins), Eoin Markey (Kill), Ryan Crawford (Kilcock), Jack Doran (Clane, 1-0), Charlie Doran (Clane), Liam Mescal (Eadestown); Fionn Lawlor (St Laurence’s), Páidí Ryan (Round Towers, 0-1); Jamie Flood (Maynooth), Greg Kelly (Castledermot), Eoghan Lyons (Clane, 0-2), Cian Keogh (Castledermot, 0-1), Jack Reilly (Kill, 0-2fs), Aidan Tobin (Allenwood, 0-2). Subs: Rory Cooke (Raheens) for Mescal, b/s 5-11; Logan Tennyson (St Kevin’s, 0-1f) for Flood, 53; Fiachra Martin (Maynooth, 0-1) for Lawlor, 53.
Aaron O’Donaghue; Matthew Kierans, Calvin Winters, Oliver Walsh, Finn McEneaney, Mark Smith, Conor Marron; Tadhg McDonnell, Pauric Maguire; Brian O’Neill 0-1, Connell Kelly 0-5 (1tpf, 1’45), Joseph Lynch, Donnacha Reidy 0-2, Cillian Duff 0-2, Rian McDonnell. Subs: Anthony Traynor for O’Neill, 56; Tadhg Rooney for Reidy, 59.
Alan Coyne (Westmeath)
