Celbridge scoring threat could sink Sash in semi-final clash
Celbridge face Sarsfields at 4pm this Saturday in Manguard Park for a place in the Joe Mallon Motors Senior Football Championship Final
After scraping through a thrilling Newbridge Derby, Sarsfields faced high-flying Celbridge who, after finishing last year’s Senior Football Championship as losing finalists, look to have improved again in their search for glory.
Celbridge set their stall out early in this Championship and produced a devastating first half display to lead Allenwood 2-15 to 0-2 at half-time in their opening group game. While Allenwood fought back well, it was a statement victory and one that signalled the further danger of Aaron and Killian Browne.
The frontline duo hit 0-12 between them with the lion's share coming in a first half where neither were seemingly able to miss.
The rest of Championship has not been as clinical from the Browne’s, but they remain a key part of the Celbridge attack and their scoring re-emergence at the sharp end of this Championship could spell success.
Celbridge’s stiffest test to this point was their second group game versus fellow semi-finalists Athy, they edged that fixture 1-15 to 3-8 in a cracker. It was Aaron and Killian Browne again leading the scoring charts, but the spread of points throughout the rest of the team was key for another statement win.
Those forwards, and indeed the team generally, appear to have been let loose in this campaign with Celbridge racking up an impressive 6-65 across their four games to this point.
Comfortable wins over Clogherinkoe and Clane brought Celbridge to where they are today as an unbeaten outfit in this year’s Championship semi-finals.
They face a Sarsfields who had a perfectly mixed bag in the group stages, experiencing a win, a loss and a draw. They were inseparable from what we now know as a really well-drilled Eadestown side before a win over Confey and a comfortable loss to Naas completed their group endeavours.
The Sash have far from dazzled in this year’s competition and their 2-17 scored against represents their biggest points contribution, and somewhat of an outlier. It is also a stat that is undoubtedly marred by Confey putting 2-10 the other way.
That game will have further emboldened management’s plans not to let their side truly off the leash and indeed their scoring in other games represents that fact.
In terms of tactics for this semi-final, Sarsfields do appear to be stuck. They have averaged just 13.5 points across their four games while their semi-final opponents are coming in at just over 20 points put on the board per match. Those Confey concessions represent a necessary restriction of freedom and the average points indicates a need for more on the board, the balance of those two things remains imperfect.
Despite these seemingly dour statistics, Sarsfields came through an incredibly tough tie with Moorefield with a win. A victory that is sure to lift spirits and belief with no opponent holding as much importance as their quarter-final sparring partners.
Their 1-9 to 0-11 was led by Shane Doyle who nailed a crucial 1-2 and the Sash forward has an impressive 1-19 total across this year's Championship. If you couple his numbers with the potential of further output from Ben McCormack then Sarsfields are in with a shout.
However, my pick for this clash is Celbridge. The statistics above are great indicators of course, but watching this side play you can see a confidence and power that perhaps wasn’t there before. I am backing them to reach the final once again.