Pat’s stay unbeaten
O’Brien’s men see off AGB to maintain run
ST PATRICK’S 1-12 AGB 1-11
ST. PAT’S are three wins from three and sitting pretty at the top of Division 1 of the Wicklow Senior football league, after a brace of late points from Tommy Kelly kept a resurgent AGB side at bay on Sunday afternoon.
The Wicklow side went into the second-half with a 1-7 to 0-6 lead through a well-worked Tommy Kelly goal. AGB came back strong, however, with a Darragh McBride bringing the two sides level going into the closing exchanges after Cathal Kelleher had earlier scored a goal for the visitors.
Ultimately, Kelly would have the final say, as his late flurry won the day for the reigning Dunne Cup and Miley Cup champions.
There was an extra layer of intrigue associated with Sunday’s clash in Dunbur. After all, back in October, the two sides had met in the county championship final.
On that day, Pat’s came away with the narrow 0-9 to 0-7 win in what was a rather underwhelming finale.
Since then, AGB have lost manager Damien Redmond, with Anthony Masterson replacing him. In a way, Sunday was a chance to observe how far Arklow have come in the five months that have lapsed since the two teams last met.
With that in mind, Arklow made a positive start to the contest; a Ciarán O’Shea belter and a further point from Tiernan McBride putting them into a 0-2 to no score lead. As the half entered into its middle third, Pat’s grew in the game. Tommy Kelly claimed an advanced mark and split the posts with the resulting free for their opening score, before the same man flipped the game around with the match’s first major.
Jordan Petticrew kicked off the move by gathering the ball and moving it onto Stephen Duffy, who then fed Jack Dunne. Dunne showed impressive awareness to square the ball across to Kelly, who punched the ball into the back of the net to give the home team a 1-1 to 0-3 lead with 12 minutes on the clock.
All of a sudden, Pat’s were dictating the tempo, with Duffy dropping deep to get a hand on the ball, and spraying possession across the park at will. Masterson tried to respond by introducing Danny O’Hart, but Pat’s continued to finish the half the better.
John Crowe got a good score wide on the right to put his team into a one goal lead, before Kelly made it a four-point gap with a free. Not even the loss of Paul O’Brien to injury on 26 minutes would deter them. Points from Tommy Kelly (two) and Ciarán McGettigan were answered by a Darragh Culleton 45’ to send the two teams into the break with the score at 1-7 to 0-6.
A more physically imposing
AGB would rally back in the second half, and would erase that four-point deficit, but would ultimately fall victim to Tommy Kelly’ late exploits.
Ciarán McGettigan got the second-half scoring underway after Stephen Duffy had kicked off another move with a cross-field kick, to Bryan Doyle. Stephen Hurley and Jordan Petticrew traded wellstruck efforts for their respective sides, before Cathal Kelleher threw the cat amongst the pigeons with a goal for AGB on 41 minutes.
A rare misreading of a high ball by one of the Pat’s defenders opened up space for Darragh Culleton down the left-hand side. The ball was eventually worked into the unmarked Kelleher, who strode towards goal before firing the ball into the top corner to close the gap to just two at 1-9 to 1-7.
Just like that, AGB’s tails were up. Culleton put them to within one of equalising, through a free. Stephen Duffy reasserted Pat’s two-point advantage with a free, but they were unable to stem the tide. Culleton split the posts with a tremendous strike from a 45’, before Darragh MacBride completed the comeback to make it 1-10 to 1-10 with six minutes left.
With just five minutes left on the clock, Arklow appeared the be the team most likely to come away with the win. Unfortunately for them, Tommy Kelly was Pat’s ace in the hole. The captain regained his side’s lead with a free, before smashing over a peach from play moments later to preserve Pat’s 100 per cent record.
Scorers - St. Pat’s: Tommy Kelly 1-7 (5f), Ciarán McGettigan 0-2, John Crowe and Jordan Petticrew 0-1 each, Stephen Duffy 1 (f).
AGB: Cathal Kelleher 1-0, Darragh Culleton 0-3 (2 45, 1f), Stephen Hurley 0-3 (2f), Darragh McBride 0-2 (1f), Cal Kelly, Ciarán O’Shea, and Tiernan McBride 0-1 each.
ST. PAT’S: Shane Doyle; Wayne Doyle, James Kavanagh, Ciarán Doyle; Shane Murley, Patrick McWalter, Aidan Dunne; John Crowe, Paul Earls; Bryan Doyle, Jack Dunne, Paul O’Brien; Jordan Petticrew, Stephen Duffy, Tommy Kelly. Subs: Ciarán McGettigan for P. O’Brien, Niall Earls for B. Doyle, Niall Delahunt for J. Petticrew, Conor O’Brien for J. Dunne.
AGB: Ben Fennell; Tadhg O’Callaghan, Ciarán Hyland, Karl Kirwan; Tiernan MacBride, Cal Kelly, Ciarán O’Shea; JohnPaul Hurley, Stephen Hurley; Darragh Culleton, Cathal Kelleher, Darragh Fitzgerald; Darragh McBride, Cormac O’Shea, Peter Hempenstall. Subs: Danny O’Hart for C. Hyland, Cormac Hyland for C. O’Shea, Shane McBride for P. Hempenstall. REFEREE: Kieron Kenny (Tinahely)