Magnificent Naas CBS comeback yields Leinster Final spot

PPS Junior “A” Football semi final 

Naas CBS 0-21, St Pats Navan 2-14

After playing with a stiff breeze in the first half, Naas went in two points up at the break only to find themselves five points down seven minutes after the restart but the charges of Ronan Joyce and Shane McGuinness staged a magnificent comeback to claim a spot in the final of the Leinster PPS Junior “A” Football semi final. The county town team won by the slenderest of margins over a powerful St Pat’s of Navan at the All Weather in St Helen’s DCU Sports Complex in Glasnevin on Thursday afternoon.

Naas will now face the winners of the Dublin Junior “A” Final which takes place on Friday afternoon.

Already shorn of a number of players through injury Naas CBS were dealt a further blow when corner back, Eoin Markey from Trim, suffered an injury in the warm up and was replaced by Liam Mescal, who had an outstanding game, particularly in the second half.

Despite living off scraps from kick outs and around the middle of the pitch, Naas were 0-4 to 0-0 up inside ten minutes as they took advantage of that stiff breeze. While they lived off scraps further out Naas forced turnovers at the back and quickly transitioned into attacks which led to points from Rory Thompson, full back Daniel Sargent, wing back, Niall McAndrew and Jack Reilly. A first real attack for the Navan school yielded a goal with corner forward Nathan Reilly fielding a high ball from Cormac McKenna to finish past Ryan Sargent in the Naas goals.

Points from Cathal Harris and Thompson as well as Hugh Kelly and Reilly drew just a single response from Pat’s through Bobby Gaffney.

By the 20th minute Pat’s hit a purple patch with points from Nathan Reilly (free), Will Byrne and DJ Reilly to bring them back to one but late points from Callum Cowser and Max Sargent gave Naas a three point lead again before a late charge on Will Byrne by Aran Martin led to a pointed free from Nathan Reilly for Pats to leave the Kildare school 0-11 to 1-5 up at half time.

Any worries that those two points would hardly be sufficient against the stiffening breeze in the second half were quickly realised as Pat’s hit 1-4 in an opening seven minutes blitz to turn the half time deficit into a five point lead, 2-10 to 0-11 and Naas CBS looked in trouble.

As the breeze dropped somewhat and Naas began to get parity at least around the middle they began their remarkable fightback, firing over three points in a row from Reilly, one from play, one from a free and Thompson. Nathan Reilly put the Navan school three in front again in the 45th minute but the Naas fightback now began in earnest as they closed up at the back and fought like tigers further out the field. Five unanswered points followed in a dominant spell between the 47th and 54th minutes with a Thompson point drawing the sides level for the second time in the game at 0-17 to 2-11 in the 51st minute. Points from Matthew Galvin and captain, Niall Andrews gave the Kildare school a two point advantage before points from Conal O’Sullivan and substitute, Ryan O’Neill drew the sides level for the third time with four minutes remaining.

Back came Naas again in a dramatic finish with pointed frees from Thompson, with Pat’s full back, Michael Byrne receiving a Black Card for the first of the offences and although another Pat’s substitute, Tomas Proudfoot, pulled one back two minutes into injury time it wasn’t enough to deny Naas CBS the victory, much to the delight of their large following at the game.

NAAS CBS: Ryan Sargent (Blessington); Colin Parker (Naas), Daniel Sargent (Eadestown) 0-1, Liam Mescal (Eadestown); Cathal Harris (Raheens) 0-1, Aran Martin (Naas), Niall McAndrew (Naas) 0-2; Hugh Kelly (Kill) 0-1, Oisin McAfee (Raheens) 0-1; Rian Curran (Raheens), Matthew Galvin (Two Mile House) 0-2; Max Sargent (Eadestown) 0-2; Callum Cowser (Naas) 0-1, Rory Thompson (Raheens) 0-6 (2 frees), Jack Reilly (Kill) 0-4 (2 frees) SUBS: Ronan Walsh (Eadestown) for Max Sargent, Mark McCarthy (Sallins).

ST PAT’S NAVAN: Cormac Fitzsimons; Harry Butler, Michael Byrne, Niall Smyth; Conal O’Sullivan 0-2, Cormac McKenna, Conn Brennan; Bobby Gaffney 0-1, Luke Kenny; Max Condon, Will Byrne 0-1, Sean Smyth 0-2; DJ Reilly, Conor Duffy 0-1 Nathan Reilly 2-5 (1 free). SUBS: Tomas Proudfoot for Max Condon 0-1, Leo Kavanagh for DJ Reilly 47, Ryan O’Neill 0-1 for Conor Duffy 54, Charlie Twomey for Bobby Gaffney.

REFEREE: Paul Fahey (Dublin)