Enniskerry through Barton leads Black and Amber charge to ‘B’ decider
at Pearses’ Park, Arklow the score board after eight minutes with his left foot but Gavin Barton quickly replied with two points in quick succession, the second a free. It was 1-04 to a point after 14 minutes.
Kiltegan came back into it for the second quarter though by reeling off three unanswered points to put a goal between the teams at that stage of the game.
First Joey Maher bustled his way through a couple of tackles to shoot before two Steven Coogan points, the first following a beautiful offload by full-forward Mark Ryan, reduced the arrears to that goal.
The teams traded points just before half-time and it was 1-05 to 0-05 as Pat Dunne called the first half to a halt.
Enniskerry started the second half like a train to ensure Kiltegan couldn’t come back into the match.
Forty seconds into the half Donal Finch kicked a point and a minute later Luke Wrynn joined the attack for another.
Wrynn had originally gathered possession in defence and having distributed the ball to wing forward Eoin Byrne ghosted into a huge swathe of space around the Kiltegan 45 to take to return pass and kick a brilliant point.
Having established this lead Enniskerry did just enough to keep Kiltegan at arm’s length without killing the game off during the second half.
Enniskerry scored three more points between the 39th and 55th minutes without reply, Barton converted two frees and provided the final pass for Craig Williams’ point. Kiltegan could final no way to get back on the score and only two late Christy O’Toole frees when the match was all but over completed their seven point total.
Enniskerry march on and will be thankful that the growing tension evident near the end of the match when a few players came together to exchange pleasantries didn’t develop into anything more than that.
Gavin Barton will be their talisman again and he represents their best chance but they’ll have to increase their scoring return in the second half if they are to be victorious against Knockananna though.
Scorers – Enniskerry: Gavin Barton (3f) 0-06; Brendan Barton 1-00; Luke Wrynn, Colum Nolan, Donal Finch, Craig Williams 0-01 each.
Kiltegan: Christy O’Toole (2f) 0-03; Steven Coogan 0-02; PJ Daly, Joey Maher 0-01 each.
Enniskerry: Ian Kirwan; Stephen Cahill, Brendan Fitzgerald, Luke Wrynn; James Maloney, Daniel Kelly, Luke Dalton; Seamus O’Gorman, Colum Nolan; Eoin Byrne, Gavin Barton, Mark Tyndall; Jack Conroy, Brendan Barton, Donal Finch. Subs: James Cahill for James Maloney (26 mins); Craig Williams for Brendan Barton (37 mins); Alan King for Mark Tyndall (48 mins); Owen Corrigan for Eoin Byrne (50 mins); Josh William for Stephen Cahill (50 mins).
Kiltegan: Ned Doyle; Gavin Keogh, James Whelan, Padraig Farrell; Luke Byrne, Niall Foley, James O’Brien; Faustas Andrulenis, Dan Kearney; Shane O’Keefe, Steven Coogan, Christy O’Toole; Nigel Bermingham, Mark Ryan, PJ Daly. Subs: Eoin Coogan for Shane O’Keefe (8 mins, inj.); Joey Maher for Luke Byrne (11 mins, inj.); Denis Hayes for PJ Daly (38 mins); PJ Daly for James O’Brien (45 mins); Wayne Nolan for Nigel Bermingham (50 mins).
Referee: Pat Dunne (Hollywood)