Kildare goalkeeper top scores for Clane with 1-7 in Championship win

Clane put up a huge 6-20 when they beat Broadford in their SHC ‘B’ Round 4 clash on Saturday. Leading the way was Kildare goalkeeper and Joe McDonagh Cup winner Paddy McKenna who lines out at centre-forward for his club and registered a top-scoring tally of 1-7.

McKenna opened the day’s scoring too with a point after just 13 seconds of play. Broadford equalised through Luke Ennis, but did not score for another 12 minutes in which time Clane put a further 2-6 on the board.

Three well-taken frees arrived alongside points from play from David Gibbons and McKenna before the leading side hit two goals within a minute of one another.

Tom Malone sent a long ball into Caolan Smith who fetched possession and turned sharply towards goal. Smith handpassed across to Shane Henry to leave a simple finish for the corner-forward.

Henry got the second goal too and a long ball into the Broadford backline was not dealt with and the Clane man was on hand to sweep the ball into the back of the net off the break.

At the midpoint of the first half, Clane led 2-8 to 0-2 following an exceptional long-range score from Ben Muldoon moments prior.

Broadford managed to raise a green flag of their own in the 29th minute when Josh O’Donoghue slotted his penalty into the bottom right corner of the net after Aedan Boyle had been illegally squashed between two Clane defenders inside the box.

Clane answered within a minute with a goal that was easily the best of the lot. Cormac Vizzard collected possession and collected himself before unleashing a vicious shot into the top corner of the net that no goalkeeper in the country would have reached.

The third green flag raised for Clane sent them in with a 3-12 to 1-4 lead at half-time.

Broadford matched Clane at two points each after the restart, but they were no closer to building a meaningful spell in this game and conceded their fourth goal five minutes after the referee recommenced play.

Shane Henry took aim with his hattrick in mind but was superbly denied by Tom Reilly in the Broadford goals, unfortunately for the man between the sticks Caolan Smith was on hand to knock in the rebound.

Paddy McKenna got his goal in the 40th minute after he unleashed an excellent driven effort from a tight angle past Tom Reilly.

The sixth and final Clane green flag came a minute from the end with the only substitute made in this game Conor Ward being the man to get it as Clane finished 6-20 to 1-13 the better in this tie.

In truth this game was something of a procession for Clane who spoke of limited numbers before the start, but always looked like they had enough to get this victory and picked up their second SHC 'B' Group Phase win.

Clane, Paddy McKenna 1-7 (0-3 frees), Shane Henry 2-3, Cormac Vizzard 1-2, Caolan Smith 1-1, Conor Ward 1-0, David Gibbons 0-2, Ben Muldoon 0-2, Hugh Muldoon 0-1 (0-1 frees), Simon Healy 0-1, Aidan Mooney 0-1.

Broadford, Luke Ennis 0-10 (0-8 frees), Josh O'Donoghue 1-2 (1-0 penalty, 0-1 frees), Jack Sutton 0-1.

CLANE: Mark Dempsey; Aidan Rooney, Micheal Cahalan, Eamon Little; Tom Malone, Sean Shanahan, Aaron Connolly; Hugh Muldoon, Cormac Vizzard; Ben Muldoon, Paddy McKenna, David Gibbons; Simon Healy, Caolan Smith, Shane Henry. Subs: Conor Ward for David Gibbons (40 minutes).
BROADFORD: Tom Reilly; Paraic Farrell, Shane Flanagan, Tomas Van Englebrechten; Dean Hanley, Killian Galligan, Conor Flynn; Aedan Boyle, Jack Dempsey; Jordan Cooney, Eoin Sheehan, Jack Sutton; Luke Ennis, Fionn O'Grady, Josh Donoghue.

Referee: Ken Doyle

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