Healy stars as Two Mile House reign

KILDARE’S Two Mile House are still unbeaten in championship football outside their own county after they withstood a late rally from Offaly kingpins Shamrocks at Bord na Móna O’Connor Park on Saturday.

The 2014 All-Ireland junior champions played with the aid of a very strong wind in the first half and while they conceded the first score to Alan Heffernan, they soon took control and built up a commanding eight-point lead.

Chris Healy alternated between centre and full-forward and he was the fulcrum around which all of their best work was done.

He kicked three superb points from play, earned one free that was converted by Aidan Casey, won a number of turnovers and sent a magnificent 40-metre diagonal ball into the chest of Conor Keogh for the game’s only goal after 16 minutes.

A chink of light opened up for Shamrocks when two Nigel Dunne points cut the gap to six, and when the Offaly county man added another score in the sixth minute of the second half, the foundations were laid for the dual club to make a real charge for the title.

Defensively, they shut down Two Mile House, but they struggled to put scores on the board and added five second-half wides to the four they posted in the first half.

Mark Sherry earned a free that Casey converted for what turned out to be the only Two Mile House score of the second half with 49 minutes on the clock, and that proved crucial as it was the difference between the sides in the end.

Two Mile House led by four points with a minute to go in normal time, but a lengthy injury stoppage meant there were five minutes extra, during which time Shamrocks fired over three frees to cut the gap back to the bare minimum.