Sallins power past Kilbride to reach the last four of Leinster
Cian Grimes bagged 1-4 for Sallins on their way to a dominant victory over Kilbride in the AIB Leinster Intermediate Club Football Championship Quarter-Final on Saturday in Pairc Tailteann, Navan. Photo: Martin Rowe
The seemingly unstoppable Sallins machine powered past Meath representatives Kilbride to reach the last four of the AIB Leinster Intermediate Football Championship at a drizzly Páirc Tailteann in Navan on Saturday.
Sallins came into this as roaring hot bookies’ favourites, and they sure lived up to that tag in opening up an emphatic ten-point lead by the interval. They benefitted from the breeze playing into the hospital end, but it was never a ten-point wind and three goals in the second half from Colm Dalton, Luke Kelly and Cian Grimes embellished another outstanding win for Jonathan Daniels’ side.
Their first-half performance was built from dominance around the middle, winning around 80 percent of the kickouts, and on a work rate that was both necessary and impressive in very poor underfoot conditions after Storm Claudia.
As always Dalton was hugely influential in attack and he served notice with two points in the opening couple of minutes and with Kilbride unable to get a foothold, Grimes added a two-pointer free and then one from play before Dalton thundered a brilliant left-footed shot off the crossbar on 13 minutes.
Stephen Kelly proved himself up to the challenge of an acute two-point free attempt to stretch the gap to 0-7 to 0-0 after 14 minutes before Dalton and Luke Killian added further points with Kilbride still struggling to get on the scoreboard, having spurned three free-kick attempts into the breeze.
They finally got off the mark six minutes from the break when Josh Harford lobbed one over from play, but Sallins seemed to take umbrage at that and added further points from Emmet Ralph and a Stephen Kelly free to go in 0-11 to a point to the good.
Daniels admitted afterwards that he expected Kilbride to throw the kitchen sink at them after the break and their own inaccuracy in shooting three wides in a row might have worried him briefly but after David O’Leary’s free gave the Meath champions a boost, Sallins went back into overdrive and killed the game dead with a 1-6 to no score return between the 36th and 47th minutes.
Grimes, James Dalton, Stephen Kelly and Glen McEvoy all pointed from play in that spell, while substitute Alan Marshall raised two white flags and they breached the Kilbride net for the first time on 46 minutes.
Grimes turned over a Luke Faherty kick out and found Colm Dalton with an incisive pass, the county star rounding the ‘keeper to finish to the net.
Two minutes later Sallins swept the length of the field from their own corner-back position with Marshall placing wing-back Luke Kelly to finish past Faherty for goal number two.
Substitute Sean Conway registered a point while Kilbride took the bare look off their scoresheet with points from O’Leary (two frees), Caolan Howard and Conor McWeeney before the end but with a minute remaining impressive captain Daragh Mangan won a superb midfield mark from Kilbride’s kick-out, found James Dalton in space and his outside of the boot pass sent Grimes through to finish low for the third goal as Sallins ran out 21-point winners.
Kilbride midfielder Howard was sent to the line after a second yellow card in injury time, but it was academic at that stage.
Sallins will meet Offaly’s Clara who had a narrow win over Round Towers of Lusk, in two weeks’ time, and the only concern for Daniels, as he admitted afterwards, is that his side have not faced a truly competitive challenge either in Kildare or Leinster to date, with no team having come within ten points of them in their nine championship outings to date.
Matthew Farrelly; Ruairí Ó Domhnaill, Mark Moynihan, Seán Ó Domhnaill; Luke Kelly 1-0, Eoin McConnon, Glen McEvoy 0-1; Daragh Mangan, Paul Farrelly; Cian Grimes 1-4 (1tpf,1f), Colm Dalton 1-3, Luke Killian 0-1; Stephen Kelly 0-4 (1tpf,1f), Emmet Ralph 0-1, James Dalton 0-1.
Alan Marshall 0-2 for Ralph 39, Ferdia Ó Domhnaill for C Dalton 50, Sean Conway 0-1 for McConnon 50, Aaron Carney for Moynihan 55, Seán Egan for McEvoy 55.
Luke Faherty; Mark Dempsey, Ronan O’Leary, Cian Harford; Finn White, Timmy Farrell, Andrew McWeeney; Daniel Boyd, Caolan Howard 0-1; Conor McWeeney 0-1, James Gavin, Cathal McKeon; Josh Harford 0-1, David O’Leary 0-3 (3fs), Adam Malone.
Zach McGovern for Malone 41, Gareth Rooney for Harford 46, Conor O’Driscoll for Dempsey 47, Anthony Barker for A McWeeney 52, Cadhla McKenna for Gavin 57.
James Foley (Carlow).
