Toman and Cleary on form as Maynooth complete border raid

MAYNOOTH PP 2-8

SALESIAN COLLEGE 0-9

Daire Walsh – 28 February 2013 10:40 AM

GOALS in either half from Joey Toman and Eimhrin Cleary proved to be the difference between the teams in St Brigid’s GAA on Tuesday afternoon.

Maynooth PP, who are also the Dublin Schools SF ‘A’ champs, got the better of local rivals Salesian College in a close-fought Junior ‘B’ decider, bringing the cup back to Kildare (pictured).

Maynooth had enjoyed a dream start to the contest when centre-forward Toman burst through to finish clinically past Salesians netminder Rob Taylor, but the Celbridge school responded positively with fine scores from Evin McDonnell and Dara Redmond. The Moyglare Road men did re-assert their superiority with points from corner-forwards Paul Maguire and Johnny Flattery, before Salesians centre-back Michael Gallagher and Toman swapped scores in quick succession.

Brian Travers and Flattery soon added to Maynooth’s advantage, but Salesians ensured that the deficit was reduced to two (1-5 to 0-6) in time for the interval as a result of points from McDonnell (two) and sub Kevin O’Callaghan.

Indeed, although two points in as many minutes did peg back Salesians after full-forward Redmond had opened the second half scoring, crucial efforts from McDonnell and O’Callaghan left the bare minimum between the two north Kildare counterparts with just ten minutes left to play.

This was as close as they came-, however, as a 56th-minute point from Flattery was added to by a goal from close-range by Cleary, which helped Maynooth to squeeze over the finishing line.