Kiltegan see off Glenealy

at Arklow around from his centre forward berth to find pockets of space away from Gary Byrne and shoot over the bar. Liam Keogh got on the end of a Jonathan Tallon ball in to score the goal.

James Manley and Gavin Byrne hit over the two Glenealy points before they went on to outscore Kiltegan by seven points for the rest of the half.

Paul O’Brien scored four frees as Glenealy dominated in all sectors of the pitch. Gavin Byrne and Ben Driver his Glenealy’s two other first half points but it was Glen O’Gorman who got the goal that put the team ahead for the first time. James Manley hit a shot that dropped on the edge of the square O’Gorman got his hurl to the ball and direct it into the net.

At half time it looked like Glenealy would go on to win comfortably, they had nullified the Kiltegan attack and were putting the defence under fierce pressure, unable to clear their lines. For Driver’s point Nigel Driver blocked Ronan Byrne’s attempted clearance and passed to the unmarked Ben.

Kiltegan started the second half the stronger again and three points off the hurls of Germaine and Bermingham put them back in the lead by a point.

Bermingham’s point was an awful score for Glenealy to concede.

Germaine lined up a 65 but rather than take a shot he saw that Bermingham was in lots of space without a man near him. It was a poor error on Glenealy’s part to not pick up a loose man.

Paul O’Brien levelled the match with a free he won but this time there was no repeat of the first half. Jonathan Tallon easily gathered an uncontested puck out to pop over a point and JJ Phelan ghosted forward to receive Steven Coogan’s pass for a point in the next passage of play.

That put two between the teams, 1-11 to 1-9, before O’Brien split four points with Bermingham and Germaine and it still was a two point game entering the final ten minutes.

Glenealy had their chances but with four wides they couldn’t claw their way back into contention. Kiltegan were content to let Glenealy hit the ball wide and Tallon and Germaine hit over the final two points for the win.

Glenealy had their chance but overall it was a deserved win for Kiltegan. KILTEGAN SCORERS: Geoffrey Bermingham (0-7, 1 free); Sean Germaine (0-5, 3 frees, 1 65); Liam Keogh (1-0); Jonathan Tallon (0-2); JJ Phelan (0-1). GLENEALY SCORERS: Paul O’Brien (0-7 frees); Glen O’Gorman (1-0); Gavin Byrne (0-2); James Manley, Ben Driver (0-1 each). KILTEGAN: John Keogh; Nigel Nolan, Joey Maher, Colm O’Connor; Dan Kearney, Ronan Byrne, James O’Brien; JJ Phelan, Jonathan Tallon; Cathal Fitzgerald, Geoffrey Bermingham, Seán Germaine; Liam Keogh, Christy O’Toole, Steven Coogan. Subs: John Whelan for Christy O’Toole (8 mins), Nigel Bermingham for Steven Coogan (57 mins). GLENEALY: Cormac Geraghty; Colm O’Neill, Wesley Manning, Shane Keogh; Declan Conyard, Gary Byrne, Tony Doyle; Eoin O’Neill, Nigel Driver; James Manley, David Nolan, Ben Driver; Glen O’gorman, Gavin Byrne, Paul O’Brien. Subs: Stephen O’Brien for Shane Keogh (48 mins); Lee Kavanagh for Eoin O’Neill (50 mins. REFEREE: Paul Porter.