Kildare far from impressive in Kehoe cup win over Wicklow
Kehoe Cup 2023 Round 3
Kildare 0-15
Wicklow 1-11
A picturesque setting of Bray Emmet's GAA Headquarters was the venue for Sunday's Kehoe Cup (Round 3) clash between Kildare and Wicklow.
It was a game that was in the balance throughout and in fairness could have gone either way. In the end it was the visitors that prevailed but it was far from an inspiring display.
In fact it is fair to say that David Herity, Kildare manager, looked somewhat perplexed, somewhat, maybe stunned is a bit too strong, but certainly he was not a happy camper and that's for sure, having seen his side miss scoring opportunity after scoring opportunity in a game that the boys in white had in excess of fifty scoring chances but in the end hit a mere 15 points; hit some ten shorts and a wide count that was well into the middle 20s.
And while it has to be acknowledged that Wicklow, their defence in particular, played exceptionally well and that The Lilies had some seven changes from the side that trounced Carlow the previous week, nevertheless the manager said “that performance certainly will not be good enough to beat either Down or Meath in our remaining two games.
“Have to say Wicklow have improved massively, now under new management this year and they are still not full strength; I thought their game play in the first half, they moved us all over the place; they were very aggressive in the tackle; our lads had to re-adjust at half but and I suppose that little bit of fitness got us through in the end but we hit an absolute ridiculous amount of wides in the end; it was just one of those days the balls just did not find the posts.”
The opening half was a fairly close affair and while Cian Boran opened for Kildare inside 20 seconds Wicklow went 0-3 to 0-2 up after nine minutes, Jack Higgins getting the visitors second point of the day.
From early on the wide count, from both it has to be said, grew with the game, Wicklow had some fine scores from Padraig Doyle, Mikey Lee and John Doyle to lead 0-5 to 0-2 with 13 on the clock.
Cian Boran got his second of the afternoon, before fluffing a goal chance and while Gerry Keegan added a white flag, Padraig Doyle converted a free for The Garden boys to make it 0-6 to 0-3 on 22 minutes.
Somewhat against the run of play Kildare took the lead just before the break with points from Cian Boran, James Burke and a second from the captain from a placed ball to lead 0-7 to 0-6 at the break.
Playing with the aid of a stiffish breeze in the second half one expected Kildare to kick on but that was not the way Wicklow saw it and they went a point ahead with two quick-fire points inside two minutes of the restart.
A few more sides, a couple of shorts before Killian Aherne leveled and Gerry Keegan edged Kildare ahead mid-way through.
Again Wicklow responded with Mikey Lee getting his third of the second half and while The Lilies edges ahead with a beauty from centre back Rian Boran, Mikey Lee and Torna Mulconry had the sides level at 0-11 apiece on 56 minutes.
Then Wicklow found the Kildare net a minute later when a great run by Padraig Doyle cut through the Kildare defence off-loaded to Seanie Germaine and the Kiltegan made no mistake from close range to put three points between them on 57 minutes.
Ironically that was the last score from the Wicklow lads as Kildare went about reducing the lead and this they did with point from Cian Boran and two converted frees from James Burke leveled up affairs before Burke got the winning point, another free as the final whistle arrived Kildare 0-15 Wicklow 1-11.
While far from happy with his side's overall display, David Herity did say “we showed a little bit of character to get over the line in the end.”
The manager admitted that his side are “doing a lot (work) at the minute trying to build up prior to the start of the League, which will see us playing five games in seven weeks, but still our work-rate was very poor, especially in the first half, we were not getting in the tackles, we were not moving and when you have poor work-rate along with missing chances, all these things just don't help.”
The manager admitted that they will be missing a few players for this Sunday's game against Down.
“We won't have the Boran lads next weekend, Niall Ó Muineacháin, missing a few lads through holidays so there will be changes for that game but again we have to ensure at training this week lads are right.
“It is a very competitive couple of weeks ahead with Down and then Meath and that performance today will not be good enough to beat either Down or Meath so we have a lot of work to do this week and hopefully things will come right for us next week.”
Scorers: Kildare, Cian Boran 0-4, James Burke 0-5 (4 frees), Jack Higgins 0-1, Gerry Keegan 0-3, Rian Boran 0-1, Killian Aherne 0-1.
Wicklow, Pádraig Doyle 0-3 (2 frees, 65), John Doyle 0-1, Mikey Lee 0-5 (2 frees), Seanie Germaine 1-1, Torna Mulconry 0-1.
KILDARE: Sean Burke; Niall O’Muineacháin, Sean Christanseen, John McKeon; Conan Boran, Rian Boran, Jack Travers; Jack Higgins, Paul Dolan; James Burke, Gerry Keegan, Sean Whelan; Cian Boran, David Qualter, Killian Aherne. Subs: Harry Carroll for Jack Travers (31 minutes); Peter O'Donoghue for Niall Ó Muineacháin; Declan Flaherty for David Qualter (49 minutes); Frank Bass for Cian Boran; Micheál Hogan for Jack Higgins (61 minutes).
WICKLOW: Cian Staunton; Dylan Byrne, Peter Keane, Tommy Collins; Zach Cullen, Pádraig Doyle, Owen Byrne; Luke Maloney, Padraig Doran; Eoin McCormack, Jack Doyle, John Doyle; Mikey Lee, Seanie Germaine, Luke Evans. Subs: Jacques McCall for John Doyle (half-time); Torna Mulconry for Jack Doyle (53 minutes); Brandon Ryan for Padraig Doran (67 minutes); Mark Murphy for Luke Maloney (59 minutes); Owen Young for Luke Evans (69 minutes); Shane Browne for John Henderson (70 minutes).
REFEREE: Barry Redmond.