Seniors' Semi-Final Quest Stopped By Ballyteague

Post date: May 31, 2018 10:26:28 PM

Our senior team travelled just beyond the village of Kilmeague with aspirations of reaching a league semi-final against Kilcullen on Wednesday evening to face a gutsy Ballyteague side with similar ambitions. The home side had just come off the back of a nine point win over Clogherinkoe, who had been undefeated in Division 3B until then, so it was never going to be an easy task for Kildangan. Kildangan started the better of the two sides with Kevin Christie winning the break, which was followed by a goal within a minute following a superb run. A foul on Paul Connaughton led to a free from Ryan Moran, who extended the lead to four. Ballyteague battled back into it from here with a two points from their full forward, and a goal from left half forward to edge out the visitors midway through the half. One of his colleagues added to this three minutes later, before the left corner forward added goal number two for the Larks. A powerful shot led to a chance for a third goal came within a minute of the previous, but luckily for Kildangan, the ball rocketed off the right post. With two minutes of the half to go, a superb '45 from Robert McGrath made it over the bar. This was to be the last score of the half, with Kildangan trailing by five. Four points within six minutes of the restart for the Greens meant that we only trailed by a single point. From here, Ballyteague went on to score two points through frees and a point from play before hitting the back of the net once again. Another two points extended the home team's lead even further with only seven minutes to go, Damien Broughall and Ryan Moran narrowed the gap slightly with a point each, the latter from an injury time free, but the game was well beyond Kildangan's reach at this stage, as the Larks ran out 3-9 to 1-8 winners.

Despite the scoreline, Kildangan did put in some great individual performances. Kevin Christie fielded the ball particularly well and was awarded a number of marks as a result, and our younger players stood up to the plate yet again. With over twenty players togged out for the game, the signs are good as competition for places keeps each player on their toes.

There is a small break from competitive football for now. A number of challenge games are due to take place in the coming weeks in preparation for the Championship, which is likely to start in the middle of July. Full details will be posted here as soon as they become available

Kildangan: John Miller; Conor Mulholland, Jordan Kaye, Luke Barry; Kevin Christie, Bryan Adams, Robert McGrath; Damien Broughall; Paul Connaughton, Phillip Ryan, Stephen Keogh; Dermot Hickey, Eric O'Hara, Ryan Moran

Substitutes: Andrew Wilson, Richard Morgan, Daniel Cawley, Darragh Kennedy.