Kildare JFC final preview: Straffan and Kill clash in local derby to decide Junior Championship

There is little more than 10km between the two teams in this year’s Tom Cross Transport Junior Football Championship final and with the competitive spirit of both Straffan and Kill well documented this is sure to be tasty.

Straffan battled hard through a defensively rigid Robertstown to book their place in this weekend’s final. They were led by full-

forward Austin Allen who, in a tight game, contributed a crucial four points.

Kill needed slightly longer to secure their spot in this year’s final as they faced Grangenolvin. The sides battled through until extra-time and were only separated by a 74th minute Carl Lennox goal that won it for his team.

After a brilliant run by teammate Paul Kirwan, who had his effort on goal saved, Lennox was on hand to tap home the rebound and send his team into this year’s Championship final.

Discipline and Defence

A huge element of this game for both sides in this game, local derby as it is, is discipline.

Straffan lost Rob Kelly for ten minutes in the first half through a black card and it undoubtedly had an impact on proceedings as Robertstown managed to produce 1-1 of their 1-5 total in this spell.

Add that to the superb free-taking of Kill’s Paul Kirwan and Straffan will be hoping to keep it clean come Championship final day.

Kirwan managed to score seven of his side’s 11 points in their semi-final and crucially to this argument, five of them were set-pieces.

In equal parts Kill will be hoping to keep Straffan quiet, to Robertstown’s credit they soaked up a lot of pressure without fouling their opponents and avoided giving their opponents easy scores. That can be seen in the spread of Straffan’s scorers, with six different scorers getting just a point a piece. Only Austin Allen managed multiple scores with just one of them coming from a free.

Straffan can rely on their defence time and time again to reduce the opposition's chances and scores. The back six and goalkeeper will make it difficult for Kill to break them down and for me that is the crucial battle to decide this Championship.

Those defenders could be the key factor in proceedings in a tight and tense fixture.

The great Sir Alex Ferguson is attributed with the quote, “Attack wins you games, defence wins you titles.”

The best way to look forward could perhaps be to look back and we have to go all the way to mid-July to see the previous meetings between these sides. They faced off in the second group stage round of this year’s Championship.

Straffan took home the points that day winning 1-12 to 0-12, with five points from John Tracey and a goal from substitute Brian Tracey being the key contributions.

Straffan operated that day with a well-organised defence and a swift counter-attacking style. Those same traits were not present in their semi-final performance due to Robertstown’s set-up but I fancy them to revert to type for the final and get over the line to claim this year’s Junior Football Championship title .

Verdict: Straffan.