Kelly comes to Athy's rescue
Niall Kelly scored six points, including the winning score, to help Athy avoid relegation from Division 1 of the Senior Football League Photo: James Lawlor
Niall Kelly has done pretty much it all in an Athy jersey. From an injury-time match-winning 45 as a 16-year-old in the 2010 Kildare minor final right through to a third senior county medal and running out at Croke Park for a Leinster Final last year.
On Thursday evening, in the newly named Etex Geraldine Park, he added another string to his bow – a relegation saviour.
With many of his team-mates spending most of the year on county duty, 32-year-old Kelly has been the experienced figurehead as the county champions have found themselves drawn into an unlikely relegation battle.
With Clane comfortably seeing off St Laurence’s, this clash between Athy and Milltown became a straight shoot-out between two teams battling to avoid the drop. Milltown threw everything at Athy in the second-half and may very well have caused a sensation by sending Athy down were it not for Kelly.
While some of his team-mates left their shooting boots in the dressing room at half-time, the now-former Kildare man scored all four of his team’s second-half points. They included a sweetly struck two-pointer at a key point in the game and then two late, decisive frees that eventually secured the win – and Athy’s safety.
For a game of such importance, manager Sean Gannon was able to pick his strongest team of the year as Kevin Feely, James McGrath and Padraic Spillane lined out less than a week after playing for Kildare in the All-Ireland Championship.
Although there was an air of nervousness around the ground before throw-in, Athy hit the ground running and raced into a 0-8 to 0-2 in the first quarter, with one of their three Leinster U20 winning starlets, Callum Keaveny, scoring three of those.
Conor Sheerin and a wonderful effort by Ben Curran on the right flank built some momentum and although David Hyland answered back with a point, there was no escaping the feeling that Milltown were growing into the game.
Alan Dignam landed a magnificent two-point free into the wind, and then Ben Heuston raised another orange flag from the left and suddenly there was just a point between the sides.
Athy recovered well from that spell with points by Kelly and Feely and then in first-half injury-time, Jack Dooley got in for a goal to leave the half-time score at 1-11 to 0-8.
The impact of that goal was wiped out soon after the restart when a Calum Murphy point was followed by a well-taken goal by Ben Curran.
Athy were in need of a score and Kelly stepped up in the 40th minute after Hyland’s two-point effort was blocked down, he pounced on the loose ball and shot over from beyond the arc.
Milltown have proved this year that they are nothing if not gutsy and if anybody of an Athy persuasion thought that their challenge might wilt with the gap on the scoreboard out to four points, they were sorely mistaken.
They were given a helping hand in getting back into the game in the 47th minute when Padraic Spillane couldn’t keep hold of an ill-advised short kick out by Shane Jackman. Paddy Donohoe spotted his chance and gobbled up the stray ball and with the Athy goalkeeper off his line, he delightfully lobbed the ball over his head and into the net.
That goal was the start of a remarkable spell for Milltown, and in particular Donohoe who added two points to give his team the lead for the first time.
That meant Milltown leap-frogged Athy in the live table and left the county champions in the relegation zone but direct running by Barry Kelly in the 55th minute led to a foul by Sean Murphy which saw him receive a black card.
Kelly tapped over the resulting free but Milltown had the advantage of knowing that a draw would suffice for their ambitions. Kelly won a 57th minute free that he converted himself for what ultimately proved the winning score but definitely not the end of the drama.
Although down to 14, and having lost their leader Colin O’Shea to injury, Milltown pushed on and were inches away from an equalising score when Curran’s shot flew just past the post.
Billy O’Connell’s final whistle confirmed that Kelly’s heroics had helped Athy avoid the drop by the skin of their teeth and relegation was Milltown’s lot. They can take a lot from their Division 1 campaign and although both of teams struggled at the bottom of Division 1, by the time their respective Championships roll around they will be expected to be competing at the business end of things.
Shane Jackman; Michael Spillane 0-1, Mark Hyland, Niall McEvoy, David Hyland 0-1, Padraic Spillane, Sean Moore 0-1; Kevin Feely 0-1, Conor Kelly; Callum Keaveny 0-3, James McGrath, Jack Dooley 1-0, Cian Keaveny 0-1f, Ronan Kelly 0-1, Niall Kelly 0-6 (1tp, 2fs). Subs: Paidi Behan for C Kelly, 41; Conor Doyle for Dooley, 45; Barry Kelly for Cian Keaveny, 51; Cathal McCarron for D Hyland, 60+1.
Omar Dunne; Sean Murphy; Cian Buckley, Eoghan Colgan, Kevin Byrne, Colin O’Shea, Liam Kelly 0-1; Joe Dunne, Conor Sheerin 0-1; Ben Curran 1-1, Alan Dignam 0-2 (1tpf), Paddy Donohoe 1-2, Ben Heuston 0-2 (1tp), Ronan O’Shea, Calum Murphy 0-2. Subs: Hugh Hamilton for C O’Shea, 47; Aaron Jacob for Murphy, 54.
Billy O’Connell.
