A pure beast from Boland

KILTEGAN BLESSINGTON 3-03 1-09

THIS enthralling Junior B football championship game played in Kiltegan last Thursday was the proverbial game of two halves with both sides scoring similarly in either half.

Kiltegan were buoyed by a big win last week over Lacken, while Blessington on the same evening had gone down by 10 points to AGB.

However, it was the young Blessington side that powered through the first half although Kiltegan shared a similar amount of possession kicking seven wides to Blessingtons four. Blessington got off to a great start with early points from Ciaran Mescall and Adam Boland and then a fortuitous goal finished off by Peter O’Connell when the ball came back off the Kiltegan crossbar.

Blessington continued to dominate with Stephen Carroll and Adam Boland adding five points between them to have Blessington leading 1-7 to no score.

After 20 minutes midfielder Dan Kearney picked up his sides first score following which Adam Boland picked up a point from a free on the 28th minute to leave Blessington leading 1-8 to 0-1 at half-time.

While Blessington were mindful of the fact that Kiltegan Junior hurlers had on the previous night recovered from nine points down at half time to win by three they were unable to stop a Kiltegan five-minute blitz during which they scored 3-2.

Dan Kearney picked up the first point after nine minutes and then John Keogh rifled a shot to the net a minute later. Then in the space of the next three minutes goals from James Doyle and Padraig Keogh levelled the match at 3-2 to 1-8.

In fairness to the Blues they regrouped and held Kiltegan to one point from a free from John Keogh for the rest of the half.

However, Kiltegan were dominating possession and the young Blessington side were finding it difficult to make an impression on the scoreboard and with time running out were still one point down when a “Maurice Fitzgerald” type point from Adam Boland 40 metres out on the sideline levelled the match much to the relief of the Blessington sideline.

It was a sporting match right through with the exception of a bout of handbags close to the end which resulted in a long serving forward John Keogh receiving a straight red. Referee Brendan Furlong must be complimented on bringing his own umpires Fionn and Oising Furlong, Eamon Brad- ley and Luke Brennan.

There is no doubt that there was a huge contrast in experience between both sides, Kiltegan with the ageless John O’Toole in the middle of the field and a very strong half-back in James O’Brien, Brian Kearney and Padraig Farrell and Padraig Keogh was their main threat all through the match upfront.

The entire Blues side worked very hard throughout and if they had been able to replicate their first half performance would have gone on to win however, at the end of the day both sides were probably pleased with a point.

Kiltegan: Ciaran O’Toole; Faustas Andrulenis, Colm O’Connor, James Hobson; James O’Brien, Brian Kearney, Padraig Farrell; Dan Kearney (0-2), John O’Toole; Philip Penrose, Mark Pearse, Luke Byrne; Stephen Coogan, Padraig Keogh (1-0), John Keogh (1-1). Subs: James Doyle (1-0) for Philip Penrose, Emmet Murphy for Mark Pearse, Fergal Farrell for Stephen Coogan, Niall Foley for Fastas Andrulenis.

Blessington: Robert Gilligan; Stephen Byrne, Sean McGarr, Patrick Nolan; Glen Farrell, Aaron Curran, Jordan Lynch; Adam Boland (0-6), Danillis Sakusas; Ciaran Mescall (0-1), Jack Cotter, Peter O’Connell (1-0); Ian Richardson, Stephen Carroll (0-2), Sean Mescall. Subs: Shane Fisher for Patrick Nolan, Fergal Hennessy for Peter O’Connell, Daragh Richardson for Sean Mescall.

Referee: Brendan Furlong