Maynooth impressively book place in third SHC final in four years
Maynooth's Tom Power gets away from Éire Óg Corra Choill's Jack Higgins
Impressive Maynooth overpowered a battling Éire Óg Corra Choill to make it through to their third UPMC Kildare Senior Hurling Championship final in four years at Cedral St Conleth’s Park on Saturday evening.
Éire Óg Corra Choill, seeking a first final appearance in twelve years, got off to a flier. After the sides swapped an opening point each, pacey corner-forward Seán O’Neill raced in from the left to finish to the net after only three minutes.
Maynooth, with Tom Power and Cathal McCabe starting to exert an influence, levelled matters at 0-5 to 1-2 with the latter’s opening point of the game and Power forced veteran goalkeeper Paul Dermody into a good save on fourteen minutes.
But after Scott Cramer landed one of the points of the game from under the stand to put EOCC back in front they squandered a penalty chance when O’Neill was brought down by Matt Eustace. Liam Dempsey struck his shot well, but goalkeeper Seán Bean got enough on it to divert it over the bar.
Maynooth finished the half the stronger outscoring their opponents seven points to two, with the men in black and white taking the lead for the first time with four minutes to go to the break. McCabe landed two of those seven points with fine long-range efforts from play and Power was proving efficient from frees, though Paul Dolan offered resistance with two long-rangers for the Caragh-Prosperous men.
Dolan almost contributed to an embarrassing goal concession when his sideline back to Conor Sullivan ran through to Maynooth’s Tadhg Forde but the corner-forward’s shot from close range came back off the butt of the post.
That could have made Maynooth’s half-time lead a little more comfortable than the three-point advantage they held at 0-12 to 1-6.
Éire Óg remained well in touch in the early stages of the second half but Maynooth’s first goal in the 39th minute, finished to the net by Tadhg Forde from Adam Jordan’s cross, sent them seven clear and they never looked back.
Forde’s brother Cian finished a second to the net thirteen minutes from the end but Éire Óg kept plugging away and in injury time O’Neill plucked a long delivery from Cormac Byrne from the air and batted home from close range for his second goal.
Maynooth, with McCabe impressing with six points from play and midfielder Oran Byrne weighing in with four and Power with nine, looked like a side who can put it up to seven-in-a-row chasing Naas in the final in two weeks’ time as they seek revenge for a heavy defeat in last year’s decider.
Seán Bean; Conall Knox, Daniel O’Meara, Matt Eustace; Ronan Dunne, Martin Quilty 0-2, Kevin Carroll; Cian Forde 1-0, Oran Byrne 0-4; Tom Power 0-9 (6fs), Cathal McCabe 0-7 (1f), Ciaran Flanagan; Adam Jordan 0-1, Kevin Dunne 0-2, Tadhg Forde 1-0. Subs: Ciaran Dunne for Carroll 35, Conor O’Grady 0-1 for Flanagan 44, Cormac Nolan for T Forde 52, Micheál Hogan for C Forde 56, David Eustace for Power (b/s 59).
Paul Dermody; Conor Sullivan, James Dolan, Daniel Murray; Cormac Byrne, Paul Dolan 0-3 (2fs), Michael Clohessy; Gary Johnson 0-1, Jack Higgins 0-2; Scott Cramer 0-1, Kevin Connor, Fionán Manders; Seán O’Neill 2-0, Liam Dempsey 0-8 (0-7fs, 0-1pen), Cian O’Reilly. Subs: Pádraic Cribben for Manders HT, Donnchadh Fitzpatrick 0-1 (f) for S Cramer 41, Rory O’Neill for Dempsey 52.
Brian Kearney
