Glyde get over the line

GLYDE Rangers held off a late St Kevin’s really to book their place in the Kevin Mullen Shield Final where they will face Roche Emmets. In the opening quarter, Kevin’s fast-paced half-forward line caused all sorts of problems for the Glyde defence and this was underlined after eight minutes when Cian Callan scored the first of his three goals.

However, injuries which saw the withdrawal of both Karl Maher and Lee Crosbie by the 16th minutes disrupted the Philipstown side and Glyde’s midfield pairing of David Devanney and Ciaran Sheridan took hold of the game.

Four unanswered points followed before Sheridan finished off a long run from midfield to crack a shot into the left corner of the net and put Glyde four points ahead.

St Kevin’s hit two in a row, but the final point of the half - a longrange effort - went to Glyde’s excellent Gavin Duffy and they led by three at the break.

Duffy retired injured at half-time, to be replaced by Barry Sharkey, and on the restart another Callan goal for St Kevin’s was cancelled out as Glyde hit 1-2 in the next two minutes. Niall Sharkey fisted into the net from a long punt by Trevor O’Brien who then helped himself to a brace of points.

On 42 minutes Kevin’s won a penalty for an innocuous challenge on Callan and he duly stepped up to take the kick, only for Glyde goalie David Brennan to make a fine save.

Glyde went up the pitch and substitute Barry Sharkey pointed before O’Brien hit three in a row to put Glyde firmly in the driving seat.

However, with five minutes left Callan completed his hat-trick of goals despite the best efforts of Brennan, and then a foul on Seanie Crosbie resulted in another St Kevin’s penalty.

Again Brennan saved, but this time Patrick Clarke followed up and scored a goal on the rebound, and Paul Duffy added a point a minute later to leave Kevin’s only one point behind heading into injury time. So there was great relief for Glyde when Dion Conlon kept his cool and slotted over two points to secure a hard-fought win. GLYDE: David Brennan, Conor McCullough, Cein Sheridan, Peter Duffy, Aaron Devlin, Mark O’Brien, JP Boyle, Ciaran Sheridan 1-1, David Devanney 0-2, Dion Conlon 0-3, Conor Sheridan, Alan Brennan, Trevor O’Brien 0-6, Niall Sharkey 1-2, Gavin Duffy 0-1. Subs: Barry Sharkey 0-2, Barry Brennan. KEVIN’S: Thimas Gregory, Barry Byrne, Patrick Duff, Enda McKenna, Aaron Roche, Aaron Khan, Dylan Maher, Seanie Crosbie 0-1, Andrew Campbell, Lee Crosbie 0-1, Karl Maher, Cian Callan 3-4, Darren McMullen, Paul Duff 0-1, Patrick Clarke 1-0. Subs: Aidan Craven, Liam Doyle 0-1, Gareth Boylan, Cillian McCullough.

•Westerns overcame Wolfe Tones by 1-13 to 3-6 in their Kevin Mullen Plate semi-final in Reaghstown on Friday night, with Trevor Baylon’s winning point arriving in the second minute of stoppage time. Ciaran Campbell (1-2) and Terence Sweeney (0-4) also contributed handsomely in the scoring stakes against the Tones who had a player red-carded shortly before Baylon’s winning score.