GAELIC GAMES: LEINSTER SFC ‘A’
On-fire Flaherty to the fore as St Aidan’s topple Maynooth in winner-takes-all shootout
Daire Walsh
ST AIDAN’S CBS booked their place in the knockout rounds of the Leinster Schools Senior ‘A’ Football Championship with an emphatic group stage win against Maynooth Secondary School at Collins Avenue yesterday.
It had been a mixed campaign to date for the northsiders – who have reached the quarter-finals of this competition for the past three seasons. In their opening game of Group A on November 14, they suffered a 4-18 to 1-10 defeat at the expense of defending champions Naas CBS.
This increased the pressure on Aidan’s ahead of last week’s away encounter with Dublin rivals, St Benildus College, but they passed that test with flying colours. Thanks to impressive scoring hauls by the dynamic attacking duo of Sean Lowry and Eoin Flaherty, they recorded a morale-boosting 2-15 to 0-8 triumph.
It had been a reversal of fortunes for Maynooth in their opening two fixtures – a gutsy victory over Benildus followed by a comprehensive defeat to the formidable Naas.
This raised the stakes in advance of their meeting with Aidan’s at Whitehall Colmcille GAA, which was a genuine, winner-takes-all affair.
Although they were fighting against a strong wind in the opening period, it was the hosts who were making the attacking inroads. Flaherty claimed 1-4 in Benildus seven days earlier and the excellent full-forward bagged a brace of first-half goals.
Centre-back Eamon Hill also fired home at the end of a lung-bursting run, while Flaherty, John Foley and the ever-dangerous Lowry added points. Despite the best efforts of Maynooth, Aidan’s ultimately brought a 3-4 to 1-4 buffer into the interval.
This places them in pole position for back-to-back successes, though the heavy rainfall did make life difficult for them when the action resumed. Nevertheless, a coolly-converted Foley penalty – after Thomas Paget had been upended – kept them firmly in the ascendancy.
A number of the squad featured for Whitehall in their outstanding Minor Championship success at Parnell Park last Sunday and generally maintained their high standard of performance for this clash. Hill continued to marshal the Aidan’s defence, which proved to be impenetrable as the action wore on.
Tadhg Kellett and the aforementioned Foley were outstanding over the course of the hour as a brilliant individual three-pointer from Lowry put the seal on an accomplished 5-9 to 1-8 triumph.