Cill Dara survived Offaly’s late fight back

Kildare 3-15 Offaly 5-7

Kildare were completely on top in the first half of the Briody Sponsored Gerry Reilly Leinster U16 Q/Final played in Millbrook, Oldcastle on Saturday afternoon They had 7 points on the board before Offaly’s opening score. A bad kickout resulted in Daniel Farrell getting Kildare’s first goal.  

Kildare led at the break by 1-11 to 0-3.

Kildare again dominated on the restart and stretched their lead to 13 points. Offaly had 2 unanswered points before Keith O’Neill got their first goal. Offaly. It was the tonic that Offaly needed as they began to believe in themselves. Cormac Egan’s goal left 6 points between the sides, but Kildare went further ahead again with a point and a goal from Óisin Tighe. It looked all over for Offaly, but they finished with a flourish with 3 goals before time ran out on them. What a fight back and they just came up short.

Kildare’s Shane Farrell was presented with the ‘Man of the match’ award by Kathryn Cooke (Briody Bedding – Sponsors of the tournament)

Kildare now play Meath in the Cup semi-final.

Scorers for Kildare: Adam Fanning (0-8), Óisin Tighe (1-4), Daniel Farrell & Conor Lonergan (1-0) each, Scott Fleming (0-3)

Scorers for Offaly: Alex Egan (2-2), Keith O’Neill (1-2), Cormac Egan (1-1) and Luka Myer (1 -2)

Kildare: Cormac Barker Kilcullen, Sean Furlong Kilcullen, 43 Sean O’Sullivan Kilcock, Fionn O’Giollion Maynooth,  Charlie Litton Ballymore,  Fionn Tully Raheens, Alex O’Shea Moorefield, Conor Lonergan Fr Prendergast Geals, Luke       Killian Sallins, Darragh Swords Newtown Geals, Shane Farrell Kilcock, Aaron McNally Ballyna, Daniel Farrell Balyna, 47 Óisin Tighe Clane, Adam Fanning Clane.

Subs:  Nial Costigan Sarsfields, Scott Flemming Kilcullen, Micheal O’Connor St Edwards,, Harry O’Neill Clane, Jack Rodgers Naas.

Offaly: Sean Owens, Nick Cusack, Diarmuid Finneran, Adam Greene, Ciaran Conroy, Cormac Egan, David Dempsey, Mark Dunne, Cathal Ryan, Sean Finneran, Alex Egan, John Furlong, Eoin Gavin, Keith O’Neill,  Luka Myer.

Subs:  Pauric Robbins, Harry Plunket, Sean Owens, Cian Murphy, Dara McDaid, Chris Kenny, Sean Kennaghan, Dillon Kavanagh, Jack Scully, Tom Hyland, Niall Hogan,  Tadhg Hendy, Jamie Gunig,  Conor Gleeson, Darragh Flynn, Darragh Farrell, Cameron Evans, Adam Egan, Curtis Dunne, Fergal Dolan, William Commins, Ben Brady, Chulainn Boland,  Ross Blong, Jim Bergin, Joe Bergin.

Ref: Joe Curran (Meath)