Boom Boom Jayo - Kildare’s two pointer king
Kildare's Jay O'Brien aims a shot at goal
A mighty haul of six two pointers, four from frees and two from play, from Jay O’Brien helped Kildare face down the challenge of Wexford in Chadwick’s Wexford Park on Wednesday evening. The victory puts Kildare into the Dalata Hotel Group Leinster U20 FC semi-final in two weeks time.
The Round Towers man was Kildare’s shinning light on the night returning a fifteen-point tally helped by those two pointers. The twelve point victory probably flattered a Kildare side that struggled in the first and third quarters where Wexford were dominant at midfield and a big full forward line was causing problems for the visitors’ defence. Indeed, Wexford could have had three goals in the opening quarter but had to settle for one from midfielder, Tom Funge in the third minute.
Two of O’Brien’s two pointers, one from a free and one from play, helped Kildare gain parity at 1-3 to 0-6 by the end of that first quarter. A second quarter, in which Kildare outscored the hosts 1-8 to 0-1. was probably the winning of the game for the Lilywhites. Included in that scoring spree were two more two pointer frees from O’Brien, a goal from Eoin Cully in the 26th minute and a brace of points from team captain, James Harris.
Kildare led by ten at the break at 1-14 to 1-4 and they pushed it out to twelve points within four minutes of the restart through a Ryan Sinkey point from play and an O’Brien ’45. The Lilywhites then lost midfielder Ross Harris to a Black Card and in a ten-minute spell between the 37th and 47th minutes Wexford reduced the deficit to five points including a two-pointer free from goalkeeper, William Foley, after Kildare were caught out on the three-up rule for the second time in the game.
Round Towers man, O’Brien, lifted the siege again for Kildare and in the closing twelve minutes of normal time and four of added time he went on to add two more two pointer frees and a couple of single points from play in a superb performance in front of goal.
Kildare now await the results of next week’s quarter finals before knowing who they will play in the semi-final in two week’s time.
Charlie Carroll (Eadestown); Conor O’Grady (Maynooth), Padraic Spillane (Athy), Niall Cramer (Raheens); Colm Moran (Athy), James Harris (Castlemitchell) 0-2, Cathal White (Sarsfields); Senan Murphy (St Laurence’s) 0-1, Ross Harris (Castlemitchell); Ryan Sinkey (Naas) 0-2, Ben Loakman (Sarsfields) 0-1, Killian Browne (Celbridge), Jay O’Brien (Round Towers) 0-15 (4 x 2pts frees, 2 x 2pts play, 1 X 45), Fintan Quinn (Naas) 0-1, Eoin Cully (Carbury) 1-1 SUBS: Austin Donegan (Rathangan) for Killian Browne 49, Ruaidhri Lawlor (St Laurence’s) for Ross Harris 51, Jimmy Lynch (Clogherinkoe) 0-1 for Senan Murphy 53, Evan Boyle for (Carbury) for Ryan Sinkey 53, Adam Fitzpatrick (Clane) for Ben Loakman 58.
William Foley 0-2 (1 x 2pt free); Tom Cummins, James Kenny, Mikey Hughes; Shane Reddy, Darragh Dee, Ruairí Martin; Tom Funge 1-3, Cathal Kehoe; Brian Roban 0-2, Fionn Kavanagh, James Lawless 0-4 (1 free); Rory Gilbert. Dean Hillis 0-1, Darren Rossiter SUBS: Jason Sheridan for Darren Rossiter 38, Sean Fitzharris for Mikey Hughes 38, Harry Murphy for Dean Hillis 49, Kyle Connolly for Rory Gilbert 57, Darragh Hayes for Brian Roban 61.
Darragh Byrne (Wicklow)
