Magical Caragh seize their chance
Caragh celebrate after beating Naomh Mearnóg in the Leinster Intermediate Football Championship final Photo: Sean Brilly
Magnificent Caragh added the AIB Leinster Intermediate Football title to their Kildare crown with a superb five point win over Dublin’s Naomh Mearnóg on a sunny Sunday afternoon borrowed from Autumn in Parnell Park.
Caragh looked the better team throughout with their incisive and pacey forward play and dogged defending but struggled to shrug off the Portmarnock side who narrowed the gap to a point at the three-quarter mark (7-6).
The Prosperous side, though, pushed on from there, inspired by the sharp-shooting Jake Corrigan. He got the crucial first score in 14 minutes for his side at that stage to push the lead back out to two and finished on five glorious points despite being the subject of significant ‘attention’ from the Dublin side.
Caragh were by far the more dominant team in the opening half but will feel they should have turned around with more than a 0-4 to 0-2 advantage, despite a wondrous save from goalkeeper Michael Behan from Karl Lynch Bissett’s 12th minute penalty.
The Kildare side started the brightest but only had a Corrigan point to show for it, though he was inches away from a goal when palming just wide of the left post after Darragh Swords’ free had unluckily ricocheted off both uprights.
Another Corrigan effort was blocked down and that led to a Lynch Bissett run at the Caragh defence. Ryan Burke was adjudged to have halted him illegally in the penalty area by referee Kevin Williamson, perhaps harshly.
The Naomh Mearnóg centre-forward’s well-struck kick was headed towards the corner but Behan dived full-length to touch it out for a ’45. You won’t have seen a better penalty save this year.
Naomh Mearnóg recovered from that set-back and wing back Tommy Cosgrove got them off the mark a minute later from long range before Shane Kavanagh added another two minutes later.
Caragh, who had six first half wides, put their poor shooting behind them with half-backs Conor Sullivan and Burke scoring classy points with the outside of the boot from the right wing, county man Burke’s effort a particularly inspirational one, and Eoghan O’Haire pointed a 30 metre free in between to leave them ahead by two at the break.
Michael Browne’s side lost midfielder Kevin Connor to a facial injury in the run up to half-time but he came back bloodied but unbowed after the interval.
They pushed their lead out to four with points from Swords, Ronan Doorey and Corrigan, with Bissett Lynch replying for Naomh Mearnóg but their opponents hit back to score through a Kavanagh free, a point from play off a stray kickout from former Clane man Bernard Deay and a ’45 from Lynch Bissett.
It was very much in the melting pot at that three-quarter stage but O’Haire crucially dispossessed Cosgrove and set up Corrigan for a fine point and straight from the kick out Josh Gannon made it 9-6.
After Kavanagh had missed a couple of frees at the church end, Lynch Bissett notched one with six minutes left but a composed and classy effort from Swords cancelled that out and when O’Haire won the kick out he set up Corrigan again to stretch the lead to four points (11-7).
Lynch Bissett’s beautiful free off the ground made for a nervy finish, but Corrigan got on the end of a long ball out of defence for a clinching score in injury time and substitute Dan Campbell came in for a late cameo, putting the icing on the cake with the final score to secure a famous five point win.
It kept up Kildare’s fine record at the top of the honours list in this competition, repeating Allenwood’s success over Dublin opposition last year and becoming the seventh Kildare winners.
Caragh get a break now until an All-Ireland semi-final against Mayo’s Crossmolina Deel Rovers on the first weekend of January.
