Kildare beat Dublin in Leinster Under-20 football decider

Kildare 0-17 Dublin 0-15

It was no great surprise that the Leinster Under-20 final was a thriller, nor that Kildare edged it after an absorbing and high quality contest.

Three years ago, many of the same players contested the Leinster minor final in Navan and it took almost 100 minutes to separate the teams on that occasion, Kildare eventually prevailing.

It looked like extra-time may be required this time too because Dublin, while they never actually took the lead, were on level terms at half-time and on three more occasions in the second-half.

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Even when Kildare opened up a three-point gap with six minutes of normal time remaining, Dublin refused to throw in the towel and brought it back to a one-point game entering stoppage time.

Agonisingly for a Dublin side chasing not just revenge for 2019, but redemption after last year’s Under-20 final loss to Offaly, both Conor Tyrrell and Senan Forker were unable to convert separate 62nd minute opportunities.

From the kick-out after Forker’s wide, man of the match Shane Farrell made a brilliant catch for Kildare and set substitute James Dalton free for what proved to be the insurance score.

Farrell had a stormer but so did Adam Fanning who wiped beads of sweat from his brow when he came off in stoppage time after a huge effort. Fanning finished with 0-4, the same tally as Eoin Bagnall while substitutes Darragh Swords and Dalton both made big impacts with late points.

It’s Kildare’s first Leinster Under-20 title since 2018 and they will play Sligo next in the All-Ireland semi-finals on the weekend of May 7/8th.

Their ultimate ambition will be to match their 2018 All-Ireland triumph and on this performance, there’s no reason why they can’t at least return to another decider.

They burst out of the traps initially, outscoring Dublin by 0-6 to 0-2 before Jim Lehane’s Sky Blues suddenly came to life, doing the exact same in return to Kildare to tie it up at 0-8 apiece at half-time.

The quality of the scoretaking was high, full-forward Fanning excelling for Kildare and Ryan O’Dwyer and Fionn Murray doing something similar in response.

The second-half was another absorbing back and forth but for every positive Dublin action in the form of a Murray or Luke Breathnach score there was always a Kildare reaction and a point for Bagnall, Farrell or Fanning.

Swords’ point for Kildare put them three ahead and, it seemed, finally in the clear but it surprised no-one that Dublin pushed them all the way.

Kildare: C Barker (0-1 free); H O'Neill, D O'Donoghue, M Maguire; T Gill (0-2), J McGrath, R Burke; B Gibbons, L Killian; A Boyle, D Lynam (0-2), S Farrell (0-1); E Bagnall (0-4, 0-2 frees), A Fanning (0-4), A Browne (0-1 mark).

Subs: N O’Regan for Boyle (41 mins), D Swords (0-1) for Browne (49 mins), J McKevitt for Burke (53 mins), A Conneely for Gibbons (58 mins), J Dalton (0-1) for Fanning (62 mins).

Dublin: H O'Sullivan; T Clancy, H Donaghy, K Conroy; C Tyrrell, G McEneaney, D O'Dowd (0-1); A Waddick, S Forker; T Brennan, F Murray (0-5, 0-3 frees), S Smith; R O'Dwyer (0-3, 0-1 free), L Breathnach (0-5), S Kinsella (0-1).

Subs: P Duffy for Smith, R Cullen for Brennan (both 36 mins), L Ward for Kinsella (44 mins), B Millist for Donaghy (46 mins).

Referee: S Mulhare (Laois).