Kildare minors set up table topping clash with Louth
Liam Mescal uses his pace to run at the Meath defence Photo: James Lawlor
Kildare’s minor footballers deservedly took the spoils against Meath at a well-appointed Skryne GFC as they made it two wins from two in Group 1 of the Electric Ireland Leinster Championship.
In what was an entertaining end-to-end game with plenty of encouraging performances from Tommy Konstantin’s men, they took control in the second quarter with a goal from St Kevin’s inside forward Logan Tennyson and when Meath threatened a comeback when Conn Brennan’s 41st minute goal brought them back within three points, the Lilywhites kept their opponents scoreless from there until injury time to seal the deal.
Meath opened the scoring in the second minute through Kilmainhamwood’s Milo Stafford, nephew of the great Brian, and they almost had a goal immediately afterwards, but Cormac Walsh shot just wide.
Kildare put a sluggish start behind them when Jack Reilly, the scoring hero against Laois, opened his account after five minutes. Tennyson added a second, from a free, shortly afterwards and then the impressive Greg Kelly ballooned a two-pointer over to make it 0-4 to 0-1 after eight minutes.
Meath levelled through a Thomas Dillon point and a Stafford two-pointer, but Kildare reached the quarter-hour mark with a 0-6 to 0-4 advantage thanks to Eoghan Lyons and Kelly points.
A superb Walsh point off his left, that would have impressed Skryne legend Colm O’Rourke, narrowed the gap to one but Kildare were snapping into challenges and attacking with great pace and fluidity and points from Páidí Ryan and another Tennyson free made it 0-8 to 0-5 before Daire Loughman pulled one back for the Meath men.
It was 23 minutes before Kildare hit a wide, and even that was off the post from Flood’s fisted effort, but they made up for that two minutes later when they created an overlap down the left and dual player Oisín McAfee sent Tennyson in for a cool finish low to the bottom left-hand corner, despite a push in the back.
When Kelly was fouled, Reilly punished Meath further before pacey wing back Liam Mescal took advantage of a fine pass from Flood to make it 1-10 to 0-6. Meath rounded off the first half scoring with Stafford again on target.
Meath would have hoped for a fast start to the second period, but the first four points were shared. Lyons was set up by Reilly for Kildare’s opener with Stafford’s free balancing that out before Tennyson showed he could pop them over from long-range as well as short with a ’45. Dangerous wing-forward Conn Brennan responded for Meath to make it 1-12 to 0-9.
The home side needed a goal to make a game of it, and it arrived on 41 minutes with Brennan bursting through the Kildare cover and finishing superbly to narrow the gap to three.
The quality deteriorated somewhat from that point with nerves and tiredness setting in and the next score would clearly be crucial. It fell to the visitors and what a score it was, with Castledermot man Kelly again booming over a 44th minute two-pointer from an outside of the boot pass from Mescal.
Both sides found it difficult to find the posts in the final quarter and sixteen scoreless minutes were finally ended on the hour mark as Reilly floated over a quality free kick from the right wing with his left peg to raise another orange flag and make it 1-16 to 1-9.
Meath had not scored for twenty minutes despite plenty of opportunity, but substitute John Killoran finally did so in injury time with a two-pointer of his own from well outside the arc.
Kildare, for whom goalkeeper Joe Crotty, Mescal, captain Charlie Doran, Kelly, Lyons and Reilly were particularly impressive, will now meet fellow table-toppers Louth in the final group game in Hawkfield next week, with the winners going straight through to the semi-finals.
Joe Crotty (St Kevin’s); Eoin Markey (Kill), Ryan Crawford (Kilcock), Luke Shanahan (Sallins); Oisín McAfee (Raheens), Charlie Doran (Clane), Liam Mescal (Eadestown) 0-1; Greg Kelly (Castledermot) 0-5 (2tps), Páidí Ryan (Round Towers) 0-1; Fionn Lawlor (St Laurence’s), Eoghan Lyons (Clane) 0-2, Jamie Flood (Maynooth); Jack Reilly (Kill) 0-3 (1tpf,2fs), Aodhán Bergin (Grange), Logan Tennyson (St Kevin’s) 1-3 (3fs). Subs: Aidan Tobin (Allenwood) for Flood 39, Dylan Daniels (Carbury) for Bergin 51, Gearóid Clare (Moorefield) for Tennyson 51, Eoghan Lyons (Leixlip) for Lawlor 56, Jack Doran (Clane) for Ryan 60.
Cormac Fitzsimons; Ben Browne, Tomás Clarke, Niall Rogan; Liam O’Donoghue, Harry McGuirk, Niall Smyth; Alex Keane, Tomás Proudfoot; Cormac McKenna, Thomas Dillon 0-1, Conn Brennan 1-1; Cormac Walsh 0-1, Milo Stafford 0-5 (1tp,1f), Daire Loughran 0-1. Subs: John Killoran 0-2 (tp) for O’Donoghue h-t, Conor McTigue for Dillon 40, Harris Moffat for Loughran 43, Caolan Comey for McKenna 47, Harry Keating for McGuirk 59.
Kevin Williamson (Offaly).
