Goal at the death keeps Kerry alive
Clifford strike averts an embarrassing dead-rubber game with Kildare
DAVID Clifford’s 75th minute goal, which rescued a draw against Monaghan in their Super 8 match in Clones, has not only handed Kerry a lifeline of reaching the All-Ireland SFC semi-finals, but it saved the GAA the huge embarrassment of what would have been the disaster of a meaningless third round Super 8 game against Kildare in Killarney.
The Lilywhites’ loss to Galway earlier on Sunday afternoon meant that a Kerry defeat in Clones would have sent Galway and Monaghan to the All-Ireland semi-finals, leaving Kerry and Kildare with nothing to play for on Saturday week in Fitzgerald Stadium, with the likely vista of only a couple of thousand supporters in the ground.
Apart from the huge embarrassment of having a dead-rubber match prop up the final round of Group One, the financial cost to the GAA would have ran into a hundreds of thousands of euro in lost revenue at the turnstiles.
Instead, Clifford’s late and wonderful goal keeps Kerry’s hopes of reaching the semi-finals alive, but they must beat Kildare, hope that Monaghan lose to Galway in Salthill, and Kerry need to overturn their inferior scoring difference of -5 to Monaghan.
It means that whatever Kerry support turns up in Fitzgerald Stadium on Saturday week will be as interested in events up the west coast in Galway as they will be in what’s in front of them in Killarney, with the expectation that Kerry will do their bit by beating Kildare by enough to overturn that scoring deficit on Monaghan.
A clearly relieved Eamonn Fitzmaurice - who would have been acutely aware of the personal consequences had Kerry lost - said: “Delighted that we are still in the Championship. We are going for our home game next with it all still to play for. I know we need results to go our way in other places but all we can do is control our own thing and see where that takes us.”
Where it will take them is one of two places: an earlier than usual exit from the Championship for a county that has only twice failed to reach an All-Ireland semi-final since 2000, or into a semi-final against All-Ireland champions Dublin on the following weekend.
Right now Kerry supporters aren’t sure which would be the easier prospect to digest.