Sallins cruise past Carlow's Grange
Colm Dalton scored five points for Sallins in their win over Carlow's Grange Photo: Sean Brilly
Sallins cantered into the Quarter Finals of the AIB Leinster Intermediate Football Championship with a facile 29-point win over Carlow representatives Grange at Cedral St Conleth’s Park on Saturday afternoon.
Without wishing to be disrespectful to the Carlow side, who to be fair were playing for the ninth weekend in a row, and only six days after clinching their county title, Sallins would have been better off with a training spin and can expect a more robust challenge away to Meath’s Kilbride in the last eight in two weeks’ time as they attempt follow in the footsteps of Allenwood and Caragh in making it three successive Kildare winners in this competition.
Sallins, to their eternal credit, were relentless from the throw-in and a first-half hat-trick of goals from Stephen Kelly helped them to a 4-11 to 0-1 interval advantage with James Dalton also finding the net for the winners in that opening half-hour.
In the second half, with Sallins emptying their bench, Emmet Ralph added a fifth goal to their tally after 48 minutes while two-pointers from John Murphy, the former Carlow star who kicked nine points in their Carlow final replay success, and Patrick Hickey helped to bring Grange’s tally up to seven points.
Sallins’ intent was evident from the throw-in and Luke Killian landed their first point inside 35 seconds with Cian Grimes (free), Daragh Mangan and Colm Dalton adding to that before Grange replied with what turned out to be their only point of the half, a sweetly struck Hickey effort.
Colm Dalton and Grimes added a second point apiece before Sallins lost Luke Kelly to a 14th minute black-card for an off-the-ball block on Grange defender Tom Dillon, but they made light of that disadvantage over the next ten minutes.
They were ravenous in the tackle all afternoon and one such turnover saw Killian land his second point to make it 0-7 to 0-1. The one thing that was missing was goal chances at that stage but that changed on sixteen minutes as the two Dalton brothers combined on the left for Kelly to deftly flick home his first goal past Louis Kilcoyne in the Grange goal.
After further points from Colm Dalton and Grimes, Sallins finished the half with three goals in four minutes. Mangan’s catch at midfield was the prelude to a move involving substitute Lorcan McKenna and when James Dalton crashed a shot off the crossbar, Kelly was on hand again for a cool finish to the net for his second, despite a steward’s enquiry among the officials.
Emmet Ralph added a point before Mangan made another brilliant fetch at midfield and his pass sent James Dalton away to fire home his first score since the Kildare semi-final after 29 minutes.
There was still time for Kelly to add a point to his tally before he finished off his hat-trick, James Dalton with the assist again to his neat left-footed finish.
Sallins substitute bench brought a freshness to proceedings in the second half with Alan Marshall weighing in with three points, while Colm Dalton added two more points to bring his tally to five and James Dalton registered another from close range, while Grange responded with a Murphy two-pointer and a single from Ned Pender.
James Dalton was the provider again for Sallins’ fifth goal on 48 minutes, setting up Ralph for a palmed finish at the back post and although Grange hit a Jack Byrne point and a two-pointer from Hickey, the winners added further points from Ruairí Ó Domhnaill, Ralph and substitute Seán McDonnell to wrap up a facile victory.
It wasn’t all sweetness and light for the Kildare champions, though, with Daragh Mangan, Luke Kelly and Colm Dalton among those leaving the field with injury, with Mangan’s hamstring and a head injury to Kelly of most concern to manager Jonathan Daniels afterwards.
Matthew Farrelly; Ruairí Ó Domhnaill 0-1, Aaron Carney, Seán Ó Domhnaill; Luke Kelly, Eoin McConnon, Glen McEvoy; Daragh Mangan 0-1, Paul Farrelly; Cian Grimes 0-3 (2fs), Colm Dalton 0-5, Luke Killian 0-2; Stephen Kelly 3-1, Emmet Ralph 1-2, James Dalton 1-2. Subs: Lorcan McKenna for McConnon 25, Rory Gavin for McEvoy HT, Alan Marshall 0-3 for Killian HT, Seán Conway for Mangan 35, Darren Keane for L Kelly (temp) 39, Seán McDonnell 0-1 (f) for S Kelly 44, Conor Dalton for Colm Dalton (temp) 50.
Louis Kilcoyne; Vijay Egharevba, Shane Byrne, Matthew Bird; John Doyle, Conor O’Brien, Tom Dillon; Cillian Murphy, Patrick Hickey 0-3 (1tp); Aidan Burrows, Darragh Burrows, James Hickey; Ned Pender 0-1, John Murphy 0-2 (tpf), Shane Cormican. Subs: Jack Byrne 0-1 for Doyle HT, Conor Walsh for Dillon 35, Harry Nolan for Cormican 53.
Dan Stynes (Dublin).
