Result: Dublin 2-10 Kildare 1-13 after extra time. It’s turning into an epic saga and reinforces Leinster’s claim to be the dominant football province of the coming decade.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The fighting spirit of these young Dubs is something special. Despite getting the worst of it for most of the second half and always being that little bit behind, they dug in late on with two smashing points from play to level at 1-7 to 0-10.
Sean Stewart hit the first, but you simply won’t see a better score all year than Adam Caffrey’s equalising point deep, deep into injury time at the end of 60. The baying for blood from the Kildare crowd in the stand, well I can only compare it to the roaring and screaming you’d hear from the simpletons in the stand at Powerstown Park on the first Wednesday in February as an innocent hare lies dying on the ground in front of them. The young Dubs kept their head brilliantly as Kildare employed a 14 man defence in an effort to keep an equaliser out. They kept possession and eventually worked it around to Caffrey who did brilliantly to catch a head high pass, turn, accelerate past two defenders and kick a peach with his left from 35 metres. There was no time for the kickout.
Level again at half time in extra time, the 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 shout in the huddle as they counted their jogging on the stop steps showed the camaraderie and spirit in the group. Straight from that restart Feargal Duffy got on the end of a long ball and finished sweetly to the net to put us three up. Unfortunately the lead only lasted about two minutes when a Kildare player was foot blocked and a penalty given and converted. While critics may argue that that decision was entirely justified under the rules, I thought it was a disgrace and more clear evidence of anti-Ulster bias, Dublin being the reigning Ulster Minor League champions.
A beautiful Philly Ryan free (he came on at half time for last week’s hero Harry Dawson and had an excellent game) from the left put us one up again before Kildare pulled it out of the fire with what was in fairness a magnificent monster, a beast of a point from probably 40 metres. Again there was no time for a kickout. The draw means both teams’ involvement is prolonged for a month, what with the Leaving Cert starting next week. It’ll be the time the fourth time the teams have met – they also played in the first pre-back door round in Leinster.
These Kildare boys look like they’ve been fed on angel dust. They are massive throughout the pitch and most of them towered over their Dublin opponents. They dominated possession, probably 60-40. That’s one of Dublin’s big problems - it’s a very small team. However the forwards have bags of skill and kept us in it when the chances arose. Best for Dublin overall were Feargal Duffy at 11 and Luke Fletcher at 6. The month’s break means that the long injury list should clear up a bit – Ciaran Kilkenny could be back which would be a huge boost. Whatever happens match number three of this saga and match number four in Leinster this year between Dublin and Kildare will be worth seeing.
Don’t know where to post this, but this is as good as anywhere, this is what Liam Hayes thinks of the Cork footballers, and more particulary our full forward line.
“Personally, I would not put one euro of my family’s money on the Cork senior full-forward line to win the All-Ireland minor title for the county”.
He’s a beauty.
That Kildare saga seems to be fairly high on quality Sid ya?
Yeah, there were some great scores at crucial moments, especially the two equalising points at the death. The pitch was very greasy which hampered it a bit but overall a good standard and very high on drama. Whoever comes through should certainly make the last eight, they meet Longford in the semis.
This was clearly a complete fluke result. The fuckers couldn’t even reach the Leinster final after beating Dublin.
IN what was a major upset, Longford defeated a highly fancied Kildare side in their Leinster MFC semi-final in Pearse Park on Sunday evening.
Longford scored two second-half goals to come through by 3-5 to 0-13.
Offaly and Longford met in the the first round of the championship and Offaly won well on a scoreline of 2-19 to 0-3.
Offaly will win Leinster, they have a stormer of a midfielder there and thats usually enough to take a minor in this province. I believe Kerry will be hard bet through the back door.
Not sure how that would help, but don’t worry, i’m just trying to figure out how you have the time to play Senior football, watch all these movies & tv shows, go to every Laois match (including Minor challenge games), work in dublin, work on the farm, go on the piss etc etc.
Your either one incredible person, or your the greatest bull shitter known to man.
