St Kevin’s overcome wobble to book last-8 date with O’Connell’s

ST KEVINS 3-16 OLIVER PLUNKETTS 3-7

ST KEVIN’S survived a second half wobble before finishing strongly to ease into the Intermediate Championship quarter-finals with a nine-point victory in Dunleer on Sunday afternoon.

The reigning Junior champions will now take on O’Connells in the last eight, while Oliver Plunketts face the dreaded relegation play-offs as a result of their second defeat in Group A.

The Kevin’s were very much in control of the game for most of the hour and after 40 minutes were cruising to victory when they held a 3-11 to 0-7 lead. However, they found themselves under pressure after conceding three goals in as many minutes as the Drogheda side threatened an unlikely comeback.

With the deficit down to just four points, the Plunketts had their tails up but just couldn’t build on that momentum and perhaps it might have been different if they hadn’t passed up three good point opportunities during that spell.

The Kevins took full advantage of those failures as they soon regained their composure and dominated the closing ten minutes during which time they added five points to secure their place in the quarter final.

The rocky spell was in stark contrast to the pattern of play for the remainder of a game that Kit Henry’s team bossed for long spells. The tone was established in the early stages as Cian Callan opened the scoring with a point inside 30 seconds before adding a goal before the clock had reached the one minute mark.

The No 15 was afforded a huge amount of space in the early stages and he made the most of it to add two further points as his side led by 1-4 to 0-2. The Plunketts responded with points from full back Barry Reynolds and goalkeeper, Luke Haggins,and the fact that latter finished top scorer for his side with 1-3 illustrates just how much the Drogheda men struggled in attack.

They Plunketts got back to within three points thanks to scores from Haggins and Emmet Kelleher, but they just couldn’t find the space in attack to seriously threaten the lead. The Kevins were having no such problems at the other end and stretched their advantage when Karl Martin fisted a second goal after a Lee Crosbie ‘45’ fell short.

Just before the break, Callan was hauled down as he went for goal and from the resultant penalty, Lee Crosbie struck the back of the net to help his side lead by 3-8 to 0-5 at half time.

Two further points from Callan frees had the Kevins leading by 3-11 to 0-7 but for the next few minutes they took their eye off the ball and allowed the Plunketts a glimmer of hope.

Firstly, Haggins came up from his goal to blast home a penalty on 42 minutes after Kelleher was dragged down, and straight from the restart Kevin Keogh poked home a goal after a goalmouth scramble.

In the 45th minute a high centre from Cian Matthews was fisted home by David McTaggart and all of a sudden it was game on, with the deficit down to just 3-11 to 3-7.

Crucially, the Drogheda side missed chances through Cian Matthews and two Haggins frees when they might have increased the pressure on the opponents. Instead it was the Kevins who regrouped and held out comfortably for the victory.

ST KEVINS: Gerard Brennan; Barry Byrne, Conor McCullough, Enda McKenna; Dylan Maher, Thomas Gregory, Liam Boylan; Andrew Campbell 0-2, Lee Crosbie 1-0 (pen); Aaron Roche, Aidan Craven, Paul Duff 0-1; Seanie Crosbie 0-1, Karl Martin 1-3, Cian Callan 1-9. Subs: Ian Wogan for T Gregory, Patrick Clarke for A Craven, Thomas Gregory for I Wogan.

OLIVER PLUNKETTS: Luke Haggins (1-3); Barry Reynolds 0-1, Frank Daly, Cillian Matthews 0-1; James Guinn, David McTaggart 1-0, Gary Keogh; Robbie Brodigan, Sean Brassil; Sean Callaghan, Gerard Harran, Conor Early; Trevor Walsh, Emmet Kelleher 0-1, Rory Taaffe. Subs: Niall Murtagh for S Callaghan, Kevin Keogh 1-0, Cian Matthews 0-1 for T Walsh, Jake Devine for Cillian Matthews, David Lambe for G Harran.

REFEREE: Colm McCullough