Milltown put down a marker in Kildare Intermediate Championship Prelim

Milltown 3-16

Monasterevan 0-6

Milltown emerged victorious in impressive style in their Preliminary Round clash with Monasterevan in the Kildare Intermediate Football Championship curtain raiser.

The eventual winners started with intent and had their first point on the board after just a minute of action. Milltown midfielder Conor Sheerin burst through a challenging blue shirt and fired over off his left side.

Ben Curran was next on the scoresheet and they led by two after five minutes of play.

Milltown’s first goal was less than a minute later when Conor Sheerin took aim at the posts but instead found his midfielder partner Joe Dunne inside. Dunne comfortably fetched possession and took a confident step past the ‘keeper before finding the net.

Inside the same 60 seconds Milltown got their second goal. After an immediate turnover, Alan Dignam drove forward before offloading to Paddy Donoghue who slotted his effort coolly into the corner of the net.

The leading side were relentless in the first half and added two more points, from Kevin Byrne and Ben Heuston, while Monasterevan grabbed their first to leave this game at 2-4 to 0-1 after 10 minutes.

There would not be another score for Monasterevan for the 10 minutes that followed either while the leading side added five more.

It was all about the Milltown forwards in that spell with Dignam, Heuston, Donoghue, and Curran (twice) registering the points.

That trend continued with those forwards continuing fire as Milltown led 2-12 to 0-1 at the break.

It was a first half decimation that wrapped up this Preliminary Round fixture and a clear example of a team on the up and another not so.

The pace of scoring unsurprisingly slowed after the break with a point at each end being as much of a reaction as Monasterevan could muster. 

Paddy Donoghue got his second and his side’s third goal in fine style in the 38th minute to kill any momentum in the other direction.

Milltown ran out comfortable winners to progress into the winners group in Sunday’s draw while Monasterevan will face a crucial three games to decide their Intermediate future in a loser’s group.

Milltown, Paddy Donoghue 2-2, Ben Curran 0-4 (0-1 frees), Joe Dunne 1-0, Ben Heuston 0-3, Alan Dignam 0-2,  Conor Sheerin 0-1, Kevin Byrne 0-1, Aaron Jacob 0-1, Jamie Cross 0-1, Shane Daly 0-1.

Monasterevan, Padraig Nash 0-2 (one 2Pt), Noah Barry 0-2, Ryan Moran 0-1, Conor Lonergan 0-1.

MILLTOWN: Omar Dunne; Jamie Cross, Cian Buckley, Sean Murphy; Aaron Jacob, Colin O'Shea, Kevin Byrne; Conor Sheerin, Joe Dunne; Shane Daly, Alan Dignam, Paddy Donoghue; Ben Curran, Ben Heuston, Ronan O'Shea. Subs: Karl Downey for Joe Dunne (39 minutes).

MONASTEREVAN: Darragh Foley; Keelan Meredith, Gavin Worrell, Daryll Dunne; Tristan Kennedy, Cian Harrison, Adam Barry; Wayne Freeman, Eoin Stapleton; Adam Kavanagh, Cormac Stapleton, Jonathan Fardy; Ryan Moran, Noah Barry, Michael Donoghue. Subs: Conor Lonergan for Tristan Kennedy (23 minutes), Padraig Nash for Adam Kavanagh (28 minutes), Charlie Doyle for Ryan Moran (32 minutes), Hayden Kemmy for Adam Barry (46 minutes).

Referee: Damien Whelan

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