Battle of ASP does wonders for Kerry

IT didn’t take long for the fuse to be lit on this tinderbox of a fixture in Austin Stack Park.

This was a case of two heavyweights coming face to face, each with a determination and an expectation not to blink first, each wanting to draw a line in the sand, lay down a marker.

The game was barely a couple of minutes old before squabbles broke out all over the pitch. Kieran Donaghy and Michael Murphy had been challenging for a hop ball when the Austin Stacks man looked to have body slammed the Donegal talisman to the ground.

Donegal weren’t going to let that kind of a provocation go unanswered as battles broke out throughout the pitch. One of which resulted in Alan Fitzgerald being sent off for striking. To give the Castlegregory man his dues he was being provoked by Neil McGee, who had his hand and fingers in his grasp.

Later on Leo McLoone was sent off for a strike on Aidan O’Mahony. As spectacles go this game was unedifying, but there was a certain elemental delight to be found in it. Especially if you were of a Kerry disposition.

It seemed to suggest there was serious fire and hunger in this Kerry side. That they won the game due to a goal by the lion-hearted Peter Crowley said all that needed to be said – Kerry were up for the challenge in 2016.

A fact they proved over the coming weeks first by taking a rare win on the road to Castlebar, scoring two goals in the process through Johnny Buckley and Donnchadh Walsh and secondly by seeing off Monaghan in Monaghan.

St Tiernach’s Park in Clones is not an easy place to go to get a result and Kerry, who hadn’t won in that neck of the woods in almost thirty year, had to work hard for this victory – even if the scoreline suggests otherwise.

Kerry ran out 1-17 to 1-9 winners having been level at six points a piece at the halftime break. Kerry effected a brilliant, whirlwind third quarter to see off the challenge of the Farney men.

In the space of eleven second half minutes Kerry doubled their total of six points to twelve and, even though Darren Hughes scored a late goal to put the cat back amongst the pigeons briefly, Kerry again found it within themselves to raise their game and see off their hosts.

Donaghy was immense at midfield when Kerry needed him to be and when David Moran was called upon to slot a penalty kick the Strand Road man delivered the goods in style.

It all meant that Kerry were all but certain of a league semi-final berth before the visit of Cork the following week to Stack Park.