Sunday, February 27, 2011

NFL - Dublin 3-10 Kerry 1-15

Dublin 3-10 Kerry 1-15
Goals win games, sounds familiar?  Well on successive Saturdays the Dubs hit the net three times and took the scalp of the Munster men.
The Dubs started best with Mossy Quinn hitting the net inside the opening five minutes to really get the crowd going.  Bernard was key in the build up turning his man running along the endline before finding the Vincent’s star who blasted to the roof top.  But it wasn’t long before the sides were level when Bryan Sheehan converted what seemed like a soft penalty.  Bernard kicked a free before it was Kevin Mc’s turn to hit the net capitalising on a blocked shot from Eoghan O’Gara.  The Dubs now 4 points up after 14 minutes.  And it could have been some night for Eoghan O’Gara who on 26 minutes saw a fierce shot come back off the upright.  With 2 minutes to half time the sides were level when Sheehan kicked another free over.  Over this period the Gooch showed his incredible talent.  However, at the heart of the Dubs defence stood Sean Murray who was enjoying much the better of an outstanding battle with Kieran Donaghy.  Only one star here & it was the Brigids man who was showing no signs of tiredness from the U21 game earlier in the week.  It was level at half time Dublin 2-03 Kerry 1-06 with O’Gara kicking the last Dubs score of the half after taking a pass from Barry Cahill and dummying his man.
The Dubs made a change at half time with Michael Dara MacAuley coming on for Denis Bastick.  The Blues had the 1st chance of the 2nd period when Stephen Cluxton was called up to kick a 45 from the right hand side of the field.  The 45 landed short and within a very short period Kerry were 2 points clear.  Cometh the hour & up stepped MacAuley who taking a pass from Alan drop kicked a screamer into the net & the Dubs were ahead again. 
Gooch had far from given up and looked to heaven as Clucko pulled off a great save and quickly moved the ball up field for Fingallians Paul Flynn to kick the Blues 3 ahead.  But Kerry’s star Cooper hadn’t thrown in the towel & when he kicked 3 points from play it was level with the end of the game looming.  But Bernard was having none of it beating his man to see the Dubs home and a great victory.
Three wins out of three for Dublin & a precious win over their Kerry rivals J
A couple of side notes – (1) The only thing worth saying about the performance of the match officials is that it is a long time since the supporters of a winning team booed them off the field. (2) Damien Dempsey who provided the inter match entertainment was treated terribly by the Croke Park authorities.  Damo put everything into his performance which was completely inaudible on the Hill.  But then again there’s nothing new in treating Hill fans in that way.
Dublin - Stephen Cluxton, Alan Hubbard, Sean Murray, Michael Fitzsimons, Declan Lally (0-01), James McCarthy (Ger Brennan (55)), Paul Casey, Denis Bastick (Michael Dara MacAuley (35) (1-01)), Barry Cahill, Paul Flynn (0-01) (Paddy Andrews (65)), Kevin McManamon (1-01), Diarmuid Connolly (Bryan Cullen (50)), Bernard Brogan (0-04), Eoghan O’Gara (0-01), Tomas Quinn (1-00) (Alan Brogan (50) (0-01)).
Kerry - B Kealy, P Reidy, K Young, M O Sé, T O Sé (J Lyne (55)), E Brosnan (A Maher (60)), A O’Mahony (A O’Connell (65)), S Scanlon, B Sheehan (1-05), D Moran (0-01), Darran O’Sullivan (0-02), D Walsh (0-01), C Cooper (0-06), K Donaghy, D Geaney (K O’Leary (20)). 

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