Kildare champs Sallins continue domination into Leinster Championship with 29-point win

Sallins 5-21

Grange 0-7

Kildare champions Sallins came out on top in their AIB Leinster Club Intermediate Football Championship opener against Carlow's Grange to book their place in the next round against Kilbride (Meath).

The writing was on the wall from first whistle to last with the eventual winners grabbing their first point through Luke Killian after 37 seconds.

Visitors Grange were unable to lay a glove on the Kildare champions and Sallins held an 0-4 to no score lead after just over five minutes of play.

Grange got their first and only score of the opening half in the seventh minute through midfielder Patrick Hickey.

Colm Dalton and Cian Grimes pushed Sallins five clear before they were reduced to 14 men on the quarter of an hour mark when Luke Kelly was given a black card for an off the ball incident. Kelly set a screen similar to what is seen in basketball (and not permitted but commonly done in Gaelic football) to block an opponent which was spotted by the linesman.

It made little difference to the flow of this game because two minutes later, after Luke Killian had added another point, Stephen Kelly hit the net for the first time with a fisted effort off James Dalton’s handpass across.

Colm Dalton and Cian Grimes added two further scores to this one-way scoring wave to make this game 1-9 to 0-1 after 20 minutes of action.

James Dalton was looking to turn from goal provider to scorer but rattled the crossbar in the 26th minute and inadvertently set up Stephen Kelly for his second, who collected the loose ball and smashed it into the back of the net.

Emmet Ralph raised his first white flag in the 28th minute to push the Kildare champions 2-10 to 0-1 ahead but there was still time for two more goals (and a point) before the break.

James Dalton did get his goal after perhaps the best piece of play in this game from Daragh Mangan, who fetched possession above his opposite number and sent a beautiful ball through to Dalton off the outside of his left boot. Dalton produced a super finish to match the assist too.

Stephen Kelly got a point to add to his couple of goals before Sallins’ fourth goal arrived when Kelly completed his hattrick in the 31st minute, all of which were assisted by James Dalton.

The Kildare champions led the Carlow champs by 4-11 to 0-1 when the referee blew his whistle for half-time.

Unsurprisingly the flow of the scores continued in the same direction with Grange’s high point in the minutes after the restart being a superbly struck two-point free from John Murphy.

Half-time introduction Alan Marshall got Sallins first score after the break as they continued building their commanding lead.

Colm Dalton continued to assert his presence in this game with his fast-running and direct play wrecking havoc. He added his fourth and fifth points of the day either side of James Dalton’s second point.

Alan Marshall slotted over his second from a tight angle to extend Sallins and two minutes later grabbed his third to put Sallins 4-17 to 0-4 ahead after 43 minutes.

James Dalton was once again instrumental and assisted his fourth and Sallins’ fifth goal. Dalton handpassed across the face of Louis Kilcoyne’s goal once again, this time for Emmet Ralph to slap home.

There were three more points added for each side in the final 10 minutes of this game as Sallins finished 5-21 to 0-7 winners to progress into the next round of the AIB Leinster Club Intermediate Football Championship.

Sallins, Stephen Kelly 3-1, Colm Dalton 0-5, James Dalton 1-2, Emmet Ralph 1-2, Cian Grimes 0-3 (0-2 frees), Alan Marshall 0-3, Luke Killian 0-2, Daragh Mangan 0-1, Ruairi O'Domhnaill 0-1, Sean McDonnell 0-1.

Grange, Patrick Hickey 0-3 (one 2pt), John Murphy 0-2 (one 2pt free), Ned Pender 0-1, Jack Byrne 0-1.

SALLINS: Matthew Farrelly; Ruairi O'Domhnaill, Aaron Carney, Sean O'Domhnaill; Luke Kelly, Eoin McConnon, Glen McEvoy; Daragh Mangan, Paul Farrelly; Cian Grimes, Colm Dalton, Luke Killian; Stephen Kelly, Emmet Ralph, James Dalton. Subs: Lorcan McKenna for Eoin McConnon (25 minutes), Rory Gavin for Glen McEvoy (Half-time), Alan Marshall for Luke Killian (Half-time), Sean Conway for Daragh Mangan (35 minutes), Cillian Power for Luke Kelly (39 minutes), Sean McDonnell for Stephen Kelly (44 minutes), Conor Dalton for Colm Dalton (49 minutes).

GRANGE: Louis Kilcoyne; Vinay Egharevba, Shane Byrne, Matthew Bird; John Doyle, Conor O'Brien, Tom Dillon; Cillian Murphy, Patrick Hickey; Aidan Burrows, Darragh Burrows, James Hickey; Ned Pender, John Murphy, Shane Cormican. Subs: Jack Byrne for John Doyle (Half-time), Conor Walsh for Tom Dillon (35 minutes), Harry Nolan for Shane Cormican (53 minutes).

Referee: Dan Stynes (Dublin)

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