Milltown motor on to reach the last four

Milltown 2-14

St Kevin's 2-7

Milltown booked their spot in this year’s Intermediate Football Championship semi-finals with a win over St Kevin’s.
One year on from their county and provincial Junior titles, they have reached the last four of the level above.

Holding a two-point lead at half-time, in a game that was just ambling along, Milltown set this fixture alight after the break.

However, it was St Kevin’s who brought themselves to within one just a few seconds after the restart before two Patrick Donohoe points swung the pendulum back in Milltown’s favour.

Darren O’Shea’s men then put together a blistering attacking move to get the game’s first goal.

Alan Dignam lofted a brilliant ball into an advancing Liam Kelly. The centre-back was busting a gut to get forward and he in turn found Joe Dunne in the middle. The towering full-forward finished the move by finding the net with a powerful finish.
Ben Curran added a point just a couple of minutes later to make this game 1-10 to 0-6 in Milltown’s favour.

It looked bleak for the trailing side in the 10 minutes after half-time, but to their credit, they grabbed a goal of their own in the 43rd minute.

After a scramble around the Milltown goalmouth, corner-back Jamie Kenna produced a striker's finish off the ground and slid his effort into the corner of Omar Dunne’s net.

Second-half substitute Declan Flaherty made this a three-point game less than a minute later and all of a sudden, St Kevin’s were back in this quarter-final.

Milltown smartly took the sting out of this game in the minutes that followed by coolly keeping possession.

After moving from side to side for a while, the leading side then added to their tally through Alan Dignam. The Milltown corner-forward faced up his opposite number before faking to shoot to earn space and firing over.

10 minutes from the end Milltown had their second goal. Second-half substitute Karl Heuston drove his side forward on the counter-attack.

Heuston found an advancing Liam Kelly, who, after setting up the first goal, scored his side’s second. Kelly laced the ball into the roof of the net to make this game 2-11 to 1-7.

Joe Dunne pushed Milltown eight clear in the 52nd minute and it looked like the leading side were surely home and hosed.
St Kevin’s made one last push to keep their semi-final hopes alive and found the net almost immediately after Dunne’s point.
James Ralph found Conor Murray, a man afforded far too much space given his reputation, and he found the net in confident style to make this a five-point game again.

However, goals and goal chances were never the issue for St Kevin’s in this game.

After St Kevin’s grabbed their second goal, Milltown seized back control of this game.

Two superb late points from Alan Dignam were key to easing nerves within the anxious Milltown crowd as they closed out for victory.

The eventual winners finished comfortably clear at 2-14 to 2-7.

Scorers: Milltown, Joe Dunne 1-2, Patrick Donohoe 0-4 (0-1 frees), Alan Dignam 0-4 (0-1 frees), Hugh Hamilton 0-3, Liam Kelly 1-0, Ben Curran 0-1,

St Kevin's, Conor Murray 1-3 (0-2 frees), Jamie Kenna 1-0, Mark Grace 0-1, Jamie O'Brien 0-1, Barry Noone 0-1, Declan Flaherty 0-1.

MILLTOWN: Omar Dunne; Jamie Cross, Cian Buckley, Sean Murphy; Shane Daly, Liam Kelly, Aaron Jacob; Colin O'Shea, Conor Sheerin; Ben Heuston, Hugh Hamilton, Patrick Donohoe; Alan Dignam, Joe Dunne, Ben Curran. Subs: Karl Heuston for Ben Heuston (43 minutes).

ST KEVIN'S: Keith Fitzharris; Aeneas Murphy, Conor Gordon, Jamie Kenna; Diarmuid Smyth, Tom Barron, Dean Regan; Enda Keane, Mark Grace; Cormac Noone, Jamie Smyth, Kevin Ward; Conor Murray, Ciaran Smyth, Jamie O'Brien. Subs: Barry Noone for Kevin Ward (32 minutes), Declan Flaherty for Ciaran Smyth (38 minutes), James Ralph for Cormac Noone (38 minutes).

Referee: Alan Archbold