NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE DIVISION TWO Kildare 1-14 Monaghan 1-11:KIERAN McGEENEY added to his store of happy Clones memories yesterday as Kildare – as fit and focused as their manager – climbed above the home team to join Cork at the top of the Allianz NFL Division Two.
It was a tough, fluctuating match, which the visitors effectively had to win twice, firstly in a blitzkrieg opening spell and again after Monaghan had pulled level with minutes left.
The adversity from which Kildare had to unearth the result – having lost momentum after half-time and having to play most of the second half without their most feared forward, John Doyle – pleased the Kildare manager.
“We had positive reactions from players to some questionable calls. That’s how you want your players to react. We hit two scores after the penalty. The penalty looked like a good block from the sideline. A team of the quality Monaghan have and the experience they have of playing in big games, it was good to get a win out of it.
“For 20 minutes Monaghan came at us and they got some good scores. Rory Woods caused us a lot of problems when he came out the middle. But we steadied the ship and the players who came on did well. That sort of thing you can’t buy at training.”
McGeeney’s counterpart, Séamus McEnaney, said his team would have to address the question of slow starts, and that failing cost them dearly yesterday. After 11 minutes Kildare led by five points to nil. Their movement was excellent, defenders sharp and observant and constructive on the overlap – wing back Mark Scanlon kicking two points – whereas the forwards posed a constant threat, from the work-rate of Eamonn Callaghan and Ronan Sweeney on the wings to the calculated machinations of John Doyle on the inside.
Doyle had a mixed afternoon, which ended with a yellow-card dismissal in the 47th minute for a high tackle but earlier things had gone so serendipitously that 1-1 came off shots for points that failed to achieve their target. In the 11th minute his dropping kick was going to the right of the posts when full forward Ken Donnelly retrieved it and popped over the point. Then in the 28th minute with Monaghan creeping closer, Doyle’s free travelled a similar direction and again Donnelly got on the end of it, touching it across goal for Sweeney to fist to the net.
McEnaney acknowledged his team had been lucky to go in just five points behind, a margin generally unreflective of Kildare’s superiority and partly explained by a penalty against the run of the play in the 21st minute. Dick Clerkin was placed through on goal but his shot was deflected – by what referee Thomas Quigley deemed a foul block – by Andrew McLoughlin, who was ticked. Tommy Freeman’s dispatch of the penalty was flawless.
At the break Kildare led by 1-9 to 1-4 but McEnaney made changes that improved matters for the home team, who by that stage had lost Paul Finlay to an ankle injury. Vincent Corey was relocated from centrefield to shore up defence and Woods was switched to a deeper role from the full-forward line, which turned the second half into a punishing interlude given his lack of fitness. But he worked hard and won a lot of hard ball during the period of Monaghan’s recovery, ending the match with three points.
Darren Hughes, liberated from the full-back position, got up for two points in the second half, including the 65th-minute equaliser, as the home side outscored their opponents by seven points to one from the 36th minute.
Kildare kept their heads. Dermot Earley had a fine match, working hard and making himself available even as the match turned. The replacements also did their job. Alan Smith, who had come in for Doyle, kicked two points, including the final score. Apparently exhausted by their comeback and committed to getting forward, Monaghan weren’t able to live with Kildare’s mobility in the closing minutes.
First Sweeney – fittingly, given Monaghan goalkeeper Pádraig McBennett got off lightly for clattering him in the 59th minute to avert a goal threat – curled over a point. Then Karl Ennis, another of the replacements, doubled the lead before Smith completed the scoring. There was still time for Kevin O’Neill and Hugh McGrillen to show their sharpness by snapping up interceptions as Monaghan furiously tried to snatch something back for their supporters in a crowd of 4,000.
KILDARE: S McCormack; A McLoughlin, K O'Neill, H McGrillen; M Scanlon (0-2), B Flanagan, M Conway; K Brennan, D Earley; E Callaghan (0-2), P O'Neill (0-1), R Sweeney (1-1); J Kavanagh (0-1), K Donnelly (0-1), J Doyle (0-3, two frees). Subs: A Smith (0-2)for Doyle (yellow card, 48 mins), M O'Flaherty for Scanlon (59 mins), R Kelly for Brennan (62 mins), E O'Flaherty for P O'Neill (65 mins), K Ennis (0-1)for Kavanagh (68 mins).
MONAGHAN: P McBennett; D Mone, D Hughes (0-2), D McArdle; C McManus, J Conlon, G McQuaid; V Corey, O Lennon; D Clerkin, P Finlay (0-1, free), D Freeman; M Downey (0-1), R Woods (0-3), T Freeman (1-4, goal penalty and three frees). Subs: G McEnaney for McQuaid (29 mins), S Gallogly for D Freeman (31 mins), R Ronaghan for Finlay (injured, 35 mins), C Hanratty for Conlon (half-time), P McGuigan for Hanratty (63 mins), S McAleer for Downey (69 mins).
Referee: T Quigley(Dublin).
