Robertstown put seven goals up in scorching Kildare JFC opener

Robertstown 7-10

Ballykelly 0-6

Robertstown and Ballykelly contested a one sided clash in the Kildare Junior Football Championship's Group B.

Ballykelly opened the scoring through Luke Gill before Robertstown grabbed the first of their seven goals in this game. Dara Cosgrave, the man at the heart of all things good for the eventual winners, found Brion Kennedy in space and the corner-forward produced a cool sidefoot finish.

The trailing side battled back, but were far too leaky at the other end with Robertstown creating endless chances to extend their advantage.

However, they didn't take those opportunities in the first quarter and, after a free was scored at each end, another Luke Gill point in the 17th minute left the sides a single score apart on 1-1 to 0-3.

Then came an astonishing run of three goals in as many minutes.

Brion Kennedy then turned provider and John O’Sullivan was the man to find the net next for Robertstown.

Joe Kavanagh in turn found Kennedy for his second as he took possession, turned, and found the corner of the net in fine style.

Less than a minute later and Kennedy was in again and Ballykelly took desperate action to stop the completion of Kennedy’s hattrick, but dragged him to the floor for an obvious penalty in their attempts.

Kennedy slid the resulting penalty into the bottom left corner along the ground to coolly complete his hattrick anyway. The penalty made it 4-1 to 0-3 after 20 minutes.

Robertstown added three more points before half-time with Ballykelly not registering again for some time.

The trailing side’s day wasn’t getting any better after the restart either with Josh Lawler earning himself a red card for a blatant and petulant second bookable offence three minutes after play resumed.

Robertstown’s midfield pair of Danny Scully and Dara Cosgrave would both get second half goals before substitute Jason Butler raised their seventh and final green flag.

Ballykelly’s Simon Luttrell got the game’s last point of a dire outing for his side as they finished on the wrong side of a 7-10 to 0-6 defeat.

Robertstown, Brion Kennedy 3-2 (1-0 penalty, 0-2 frees), DJ Percival 0-5 (0-2 frees, one two-pointer), Dara Cosgrave 1-1, Danny Scully 1-1, Jason Butler 1-1, John O'Sullivan 1-0.

Ballykelly, Daragh Byrne 0-3 (0-2 frees), Luke Gill 0-2, Simon Luttrell 0-1.

ROBERTSTOWN: Richard Price; Ross Kavanagh, Niall Kane, Anthony Moran; James Keely, Peter Hogarty, Diarmuid Healy; Dara Cosgrave, Danny Scully; Conor Moran, Joe Kavanagh, Kevin Dowling; Brion Kennedy, DJ Percival, John O'Sullivan. Subs: Cole Lyons for Conor Moran (43 minutes), Jason Butler for John O'Sullivan (43 minutes).

BALLYKELLY: Conor Murphy; Daragh Talbot, Shane Dunne, Sean Moore; Padraigh Cullen, Owen Whelan, Jamie Delaney; Jack Smyth, Eddie O'Connell; Luke Gill, Mikey Murphy, Josh Lawler; Eoghan Sinnott, Daragh Byrne, Simon Luttrell. Subs: Jason Dunne for Daragh Talbot (41 minutes), Calum Grattan for Eoghan Sinnott (41 minutes), Dara Lovern for Jamie Delaney (46 minutes), Sam Rainbow for Padraigh Cullen (48 minutes), Adam Gordon for Luke Gill (50 minutes).

Referee: Paul Donnelly

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