KILCOOLE BOW OUT
Late penalty drama crushes Goosebank men’s hopes
IN the space of five minutes Kilcoole’s Leinster Junior Club Championship hopes were crushed last Saturday afternoon after they had a penalty call waved away at one end before Kildare’s Milltown were awarded and converted a spot kick to kill the game as a contest with time almost up.
With Milltown reduced to 14 men in the 57th minute of this game and with Danny Kavanagh pulling Kilcoole to within one of the Kildare champions 60 seconds later it seemed that the momentum was with Ciaran Dutton’s men.
Milltown’s kick out was broken by Jack Bellamy and after a brief ping pong episode on the ground Lee Dutton fed Cormac Byrne who slipped the ball through the onrushing Eoin Keddy who bore down on goal.
Having too many options could be considered a bad thing at times. Keddy had four choices ahead of him.
To his left he had Danny Kavanagh, to his right he had Lee Dutton (both unmarked and in perfect positions).
Ahead of him he had the formidable figure of Milltown full-back Kevin Byrne standing dead centre in the middle of the square with goalkeeper Paul Mulhall poised on the line.
Keddy’s choices were to flick to either Kavanagh or Dutton, pop over the equaliser or go for goal. He went for Kavanagh, but his pass was floated too high and it gave the full-back time to swallow Kavanagh up and when the full-forward hit the deck the ball spilled from his grasp and trickled wide.
Milltown full-back Kevin Byrne collided with Kavanagh and the defender went to ground first with Kavanagh being felled as a result. No penalty was awarded.
Back came Milltown and they recorded a wide from Ian Fitzgerald before centre forward Kevin Dowling hoisted a high ball from the 21 which broke off Matt Mannix back to Dowling and in Mannix’s effort to stop the attacker he pulled him down and Louth’s David Fedigan awarded the penalty that was dispatched by centre back and captain Colin O’Shea to make it 1-12 to 0-11 with time almost up.
Kilcoole will be desperately disappointed with their performance when they view it in the cold light of day.
They didn’t come anywhere near their potential over the course of the game and failed to score until the 20th minute when Declan roper fired over to leave them four adrift of their Kildare opponents. In saying all that, though, they could easily have won this game at the end.
Milltown’s cause was helped by an outstanding performance from half-forward Alan Dignam who created and directed and led by example all over the field.
Their 0-5 to 0-1 lead after 20 minutes was fully deserved as was their 0-7 to 0-4 half-time tally although Kilcoole would have been relatively happy to be just three points down having barely played any football at all; their other three scores coming from Lee Dutton, Matt Gilbert (free) and Vinnie Quigley in the 21st, 23rd and 24th minutes of the first half.
That scoring burst had brought them to within one of Milltown, but they finished the half strongly with two points to leave it 0-7 to 0-4 at the break.
Kilcoole had trouble finding a way past Colin O’Shea at centre back and Kevin Byrne at full-back with Byrne limiting Danny Kavanagh’s influence on the game throughout.
Milltown’s scoring was nearly complet by the 48th minute of this game when they led by 0-12 to 0-5. They wouldn’t raise a white flag again.
Matt Gilbert had bagged Kilcoole’s fifth point in the 35th minute but Ciaran Dutton’s men would go an expensive 16 and a half minutes before scoring again through Danny Kavanagh from a free.
From here, Kilcoole stirred from their slumber. Cormac Byrne, Danny Kavanagh (free), Declan Roper, Cormac Byrne again and Danny Kavanagh’s last point pulled them back to within one and with Milltown down to 14 it was looking good.
But that lost opportunity in front of the goal and the waving away of the penalty calls gave Milltown renewed energy and they took the game to a weary looking Kilcoole and when Matt Mannix brought down Kevin Dowling and Colin O’Shea dispatched the spot kick it was all over.
Scorers – Kilcoole: Danny Kavanagh 0-3 (2f), Matt Gilbert 0-2 (1f), Cormac Byrne 0-2, Declan Roper 0-2, Lee Dutton 0-1, Vinnie Quigley 0-1.
Milltown: Alan Dignam 0-4 (3f), Kevin Dowling 0-2, Ronan O’Shea 0-2, Omar Dunne 0-1, Morgan Owens 0-1, Wayne Dignam 0-1, Colin O’Shea 1-0 (p), Robert Scully 0-1.
Kilcoole: Glen Tighe; Eoin Hanney, Matt Mannix, David Kelly; Dara Keddy, Colly McGovern, Peter O’Brien; Vinny Quigley, Jack Bellamy; Luke Evans, Cormac Byrne, Eoin Keddy; Lee Dutton, Danny Kavanagh, Matt Gilbert. Subs: Eoin O’Brien for C McGovern (33, inj).
Milltown: Paul Mulhall; Jamie Cross, Kevin Byrne, Michael Colleton; Morgan Owens, Colin O’Shea, James Condon; Omar Dunne, Eoghan O’Toole; Alan Dignam, Kevin Dowling, Cian Buckley; Wayne Dignam, Ronan O’Shea, Robert Scully. Subs: Eddie Owens for J Condon (49), Ian Fitzgerald for R Scully (49).
Referee: David Fedigan (Louth)