Larries upset the odds to take Kildare SFC title

St Laurence's 0-9

Eadestown 0-6

St Laurence’s caused one of the greatest upsets in recent years when defeating hot favourites Eadestown, who were going for their sixth Kildare senior title in a row, to capture the Joe Mallon Motors Kildare LGFA senior football title at a wind swept Cedral St Conleth’s Park on Friday night.

While the rains and the high winds of the previous few hours had abated by the time Referee Shaun Duane threw the ball in, nevertheless, The Larries stormed into the game as they played with the tricky elements in the first half.
Their defence was relentless, their midfield powerful as they looked to atone for the defeat to the defending champions in last year’s decider.

Eadestown were unable to match that hunger on the night and never quite got to the high standards that they had set for themselves in the previous five Finals.

Former Wicklow player, Marie Kealy, opened the scoring for The Larries with a free for a foul on herself after five minutes.
Kealy then set up midfielder Gillian Wheeler for point number two six minutes later and the new champions were three to the good at the end of the first quarter when Miah Ryan popped over a point from play.

Eadestown were setting up plenty of attacks but they couldn’t break down that stiff St Laurence’s defence and they had to wait until the 18 minute before Grace Clifford set up Ruth Sargent for the opening point.

Clifford, who continually probed for attacks throughout the game, scored her side’s second point two minutes later.

The Larries finished the half the stronger with points from Aoibheann O’Sullivan and another Marie Kealy free to give them a 0-5 to 0-2 lead at the break.

Two of those Larries points could well have been goals had the attack been that little more ruthless.

The talk at break was that the team from the south of the county deserved their half-time lead but the question was would Eadestown take control for the second half with the wind now at their backs.

That question was firmly answered within five minutes of the restart when Kealy popped over a point from play after 30 seconds and set up Aoibheann O’Sullivan for another in the 34 minute.

As well as finding the opposition rearguard difficult to break through, Eadestown were not helped by a certain inaccuracy in front of goals. They recorded seven wides in the second half and twelve wides in total. They did, however, bring the game back to two points towards the end of the third quarter through a great point from Ruth Sargent, an Abaigh Cahill free and a point from play by the industrious Jessica Harney.

At 0-7 to 0-5 it set us up for an exciting and nail-biting final quarter.

Solid defending led to sporadic attacks from the winners but they made those attacks count. Miah Ryan helped lift the siege with a Larries point in the 45 minute and although most of the attacks were towards the Kilcullen end goals we had to wait a further ten minutes for the next score.

That came in the 55 minute in a move that involved Clifford and Harney a number of times and when the latter’s shot looked odds on to end up in the net a combination of full back and captain, Niamh O’Connor and goalkeeper, Chloe Wright, deflected the ball over the bar for a point.

Indeed the sixteen year old keeper soon stood tall to punch away a high dropping ball onto her goal line despite the imposing presence of Gráinne Kennelly.

Three minutes from time Kealy had a huge opportunity to seal the game when she found herself one on one with Emma Sargent in the Eadestown goal but she blasted over for the point.

The score, though, was enough to give Larries a cushion which they were able to maintain despite the best efforts of the defending champions.

Great bunch of players
Former Baltinglass and Wicklow player, Marie Kealy, was happy to be on the winning podium again with her adopted club, St Laurence’s.

“It’s my first championship in Kildare; I’ve won one in Wicklow so I’m delighted to be back winning again and it’s great to be playing with such a great bunch of players. They made me feel so welcome from last year. I’m really starting to settle in and I’m really enjoying my football.”

The full forward agreed too that goal chances probably went abegging.

“Perhaps, yeah. We were one-on-one a few times but I suppose the occasion can get the better of you and sometimes you can see your name in lights and you might take the wrong option but we kept the score board ticking over, especially against the wind as well.”

The early scores in the second half were vital to The Larries success according to Marie, who teaches in Moone.

“Just to keep the score board ticking was so important. I know they only scored two points in the first half against the wind so if we had scored two or three points to get a bit of a gap that was going to make it a little more daunting to catch us and you could feel more comfortable out there.”

Kealy had praise for her defence in the game. “They were ferocious in the tackle and some great turn-overs, especially in the first half. That really just lifts you as a team. They worked so hard, fair play to them.”

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