Carbury withstand late rally
JOE MALLON (RENAULT) MOTORS SFC, PRELIMINARY ROUND
CARBURY 3-9
CASTLEDERMOT 2-9
Daire Walsh at Manguard Plus, Hawkfield
Carbury survived a late surge from Castledermot at Hawkfield on Saturday afternoon to book their place in the winners’ section of the Kildare Senior Football Championship.
Eleven points clear (3-8 to 0-6) with 39 minutes gone on the clock, the Parstown men seemed destined for a convincing victory but Castledermot discovered their best form inside the closing-quarter, when Emmet O’Keefe and Dan Gray both rattled the net to dramatically reduce the gap.
After cancelling out an early score by Castledermot attacker Conor Nolan with a flicked point, the dynamic Aaron O’Neill fired beyond the reach of Shane Nolan for the opening goal of the contest on seven minutes.
Tommy Gill immediately followed with a superb three-pointer of his own and a third Carbury goal arrived in the 28th-minute when Barry Nolan deflected the ball into his own net. Eoghan O’Flaherty also chipped in with a brace of points to offer the 11-time champions a 3-5 to 0-5 interval buffer.
Derek McCormack, marauding defender Brian O’Flaherty and Oisin Milmoe kept the scoreboard ticking over on the resumption, but Carbury were to go all of 21 minutes without registering a score.
Castledermot amassed an unanswered tally of 2-3 in this period. Carbury (who lost O’Neill to a black card in a tense finale) maintained their composure and Milmoe’s third point of the tie ultimately sealed their triumph.
Scorers: Carbury: Aaron O’Neill 1-1, Tommy Gill 1-0, Oisin Milmoe 0-3 (1f), Eoghan O’Flaherty 0-2, Brian O’Flaherty, Justin Reilly, Derek McCormack 0-1 each, Barry Nolan own goal.
Castledermot: Gavin Keating 0-6 (6f), Dan Gray 1-1, Emmet O’Keefe 1-0, David Keating, Conor Nolan 0-1 each.
CARBURY: Wayne Cummins; Dean Cummins, Willie Groome, Mick Gill; Andy Dermody, Brian O’Flaherty, Justin Reilly; Aaron O’Neill, Tom Colleary; Jimmy Dunne, Derek McCormack, Tommy Gill; Oisin Milmoe, Eoghan O’Flaherty, Jack Cully. Subs: Stephen McGlynn for E O’Flaherty (42), Mark Cully for Dunne (48), Alan Kearney for Reilly (57).
CASTLEDERMOT: Shane Nolan; Oisin Nolan, Barry Nolan, Thomas Murphy; David Dooley, Paraic Murphy, Bryan Nolan; Gavin Farrell, David Keating; Dan Gray, William Kelly, Conor Nolan; Emmet O’Keefe, Patrick Whelan, Gavin Keating. Subs: Vinny Dowling for Whelan, Aaron Murphy for Kelly (both 48), Anthony Lawlor for Dooley, James O’Reilly for T Murphy (both 53).