Neighbours sort out their differences in the sunshine

at Kiltegan down a determined Baltinglass team who soon had doubled their lead through Joey Kelly after Stephen Farrell was penalised for over carrying.

An Anthony Furlong free opened the Kiltegan account but Wall had his second of the night after a run up the wing from Pat Burke created the chance for him.

Jim Bob Dalton then ruined a Baltinglass attack and broke forward to set Stephen Coogan up for a run at goal and he in turn fed Shane Lennon who floated over a very good score off his right boot.

At this stage the quick kick outs from Mark Jackson were causing Kiltegan serious problems as they weren’t getting set quickly enough for the restarts and a far more alert Baltinglass were enjoying plenty of possession to mount attacks.

Kiltegan managed to level things up in the 12th minute through Mikie Foley after Jamie Daly found him all alone in front of the Baltinglass goal.

The first real goal chance came soon after when Stephen Quinn had his shot saved by the legs of Fergal Harmon in the Kiltegan goal and Sean O’Brien agonisingly floated the follow up wide under pressure from John Farrell and Eoin Fitzgerald.

Liam Keogh, who had being doing a lot of work for the home side, then departed with a nasty looking eye injury and the returning Ronan Byrne replaced him.

Dan Kelly was starting to come to life in the full-forward line for Baltinglass and a good run from Kevin Murphy led to Niall Kirwan restoring their lead.

When Murphy attacked again moments later, Joey Kelly took his lay off behind Ciaran Doyle and blasted to the net not giving Harmon any chance this time.

Kiltegan needed to act, and fast. Seanie Furlong was summoned from his full-forward position where he was getting no change at all from the tight marking Mark Staines, Stephen Heaslip, and the outstanding Brian Nolan who turned in a really workmanlike shift on the night.

Ian Sheerin was mopping up any ball that wasn’t finding its target in front of them and Fran Fitzhenry and co had no option but to get their danger man out of there.

It took 23 minutes for Furlong to work the scoreboard, profiting after Derek Daly was fouled. Sean O’Brien didn’t make the same mistake as earlier and kicked another Baltinglass point in an instant riposte.

Geoffrey Bermingham then ran at the heart of the Baltinglass defence and tapped aver, Daly was fouled again after a fine bit of fielding and Furlong duly obliged with the free.

More interventions from Sheerin broke up another attack and he soloed forward to set Joey Kelly up to break the run of Kiltegan scores.

Seanie had another free but Joey again and an exquisite strike from Dan Kelly from near the sideline left a four-point gap between the sides at the break, 0-7 to 1-8 in favour of Baltinglass.

McGrath lined up again for the throw in and it wasn’t long before he was pointing to extend the lead for Paul Garrigan’s charges. A ball touched on the ground and a foul on a flying Geoffrey Bermingham afforded Seanie another couple of tap overs and the gap was back to three again.

The systems both teams were playing meant free men were popping up all over the field with crowded full-back lines the order of the day and little or no time on the ball for the men inside.

Baltinglass could really have put the result to bed but shot four wides on the trot as Kiltegan seemed to tire.

Padraig Farrell and Jonathan Tallon brought fresh legs to proceedings and Garrigan also introduced Lee Furlong and late arriving Declan Jones to freshen things as a warm evening and the hustle and bustle of a local derby seen a noticeable drop in the pace of the game.

Kiltegan had it down to two points with 15 minutes to play when Anto Furlong pointed a free. Baltinglass shot another two wides before a fine fetch by McGrath was given the reward it deserved with a Dan Kelly point.

Seanie Furlong was drawing frees from a tiring back line and Anto had another point with 11 to play.

Billy Cullen, who had played really well at centre-back, got forward but was off target but he did set up John McGrath seconds later to stretch the lead.

Sean O’Brien had his second of the night to put four between them as Eugene O’Brien started to have glances at his watch.

Willie Hanlon dealt very well with a bomb from Seanie Furlong which was dropping just under his crossbar but he was picking the ball out of his net seconds later after a bit of quick thinking from Mikie Foley set Geoffrey Bermingham up to finish to the top corner.

One last Kiltegan attack was rather fittingly broken up by the combination of Sheerin, Nolan, and Staines and cleared away as the whistle sounded at the end of an absorbing game.

Kiltegan: Fergal Harmon; Jim Bob Dalton, John Farrell, Ciaran Doyle; Jamie Daly, Stephen Farrell, Eoin Fitzgerald; Shane Lennon (01), Anto Furlong (0-3f); Mikie Foley (0-1), Geoffrey Bermingham (1-0), Liam Keogh; Derek Daly, Seanie Furlong (0-6, 4f), Stephen Coogan. Subs: Ronan Byrne for Keogh (inj), Padraig Farrell for Doyle, Johnathan Tallon for Coogan.

Baltinglass: Mark Jackson; Brian Nolan, Mark Staines, Stephen Heaslip; Kevin Murphy, Billy Cullen, Pat Burke; John McGrath (0-2), Niall Kirwan (0-1); Stephen Quinn, Joey Kelly (1-3, 1f), Sean O’Brien (0-2); Shane Wall (0-2), Dan Kelly (0-2). Subs: David Gethings (blood sub), Willie Hanlon for Jackson, Declan Jones for Wall, Lee Furlong for Quinn.

Referee: Eugene O’Brien (Aughrim)