Kildare and Limerick will contest next month’s Tailteann Cup final, no great surprise considering they’re the two teams yet to taste defeat in the competition.
You’d have got good odds on that July 12th final pairing materialising at the three-quarter stages of their respective semi-finals though.
Kildare, admittedly, were good value for their 1-13 to 0-9 win over Fermanagh considering they created 32 chances overall, to Fermanagh’s 21.
But with 55 minutes on the clock, the scores tied at 0-8 apiece, and Kildare having lost their previous five league and championship encounters at Croke Park, nobody wearing white in the 13,960 strong crowd was taking progression for granted.
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Substitute Brian McLoughlin ultimately changed the course of the game with four points in a row to give the Leinster semi-finalists a significant cushion in a low-scoring game.
McLoughlin’s first two scores were points, followed by a two-pointer, and the Clane man added another point late on.
His 0-5 tally matched the 1-2 he scored seven years ago on the same pitch when Kildare won the All-Ireland Under-20 final in 2018.
James McGrath glossed the scoreline somewhat with a goal in the 69th minute for Kildare, his third in a row having previously netted against Offaly in the preliminary quarter-final and against Sligo.
Fermanagh rued their failure to grab a goal, particularly when Kildare’s Kevin Feely and Brian Byrne somehow cleared a ball off the line in the 60th minute.
But Fermanagh manager Kieran Donnelly acknowledged the best team won with Kildare creating four clear goal chances overall, aside from the one that McGrath converted. They also tallied 14 wides.
“Semi-finals are kind of a day when you just need to win,” said Kildare manager Brian Flanagan. “As bad as the first half was, we still felt that if we could get one or two things right in the second-half and find our groove moving forward, we’d be okay.”
Limerick were in particularly dire straits at the three-quarter mark of their semi-final against Wicklow, trailing by seven points.
Oisin McConville’s side had dominated the third quarter, turning a one-point half-time deficit into a seven-point lead, 1-16 to 1-9.
Three Dean Healy points for Wicklow, along with a goal from Malachy Stone, had propelled the Garden County clear.
Oisin McGraynor punched the air in delight after his 50th-minute point left seven in it.
But Limerick’s response was emphatic and decisive, a blistering 16-minute burst of scoring that yielded 1-9 powering them to a 2-18 to 1-17 win.
Rob Childs got the blitzkrieg under way with an unlikely Limerick goal as he dispossessed Wicklow goalkeeper Mark Jackson after a routine catch and kicked to an empty net.
At the other end, Limerick goalkeeper Josh Ryan took centre stage with two brilliant long-range frees, amounting to 0-4 for his team while Danny Neville added a point to bring his tally to 1-2.
Limerick had earlier taken off prolific forward James Naughton due to an apparent knock.
Wicklow’s agony was compounded by a wasted penalty kick in the 57th minute, Ryan turning McGraynor’s kick on to the post and away to safety.
It was Limerick’s fifth successive win in the competition, though they will still go into the final as underdogs against this Kildare side which started the summer as favourites.
“They dug really deep when the chips were down,” said Limerick manager Jimmy Lee. “They showed the resilience and character that I’ve spoken about all year. Even when the big names went off; James Naughton, Emmett Rigter, Iain Corbett, Paul Maher, the young fellas came in like Tadhg Ó Siochrú and Darragh Murray, Barry Coleman, they were the ones who brought it home in fairness to them.”
Tailteann Cup semi-final results:
Limerick 2-18 Wicklow 1-16
Kildare 1-13 Fermanagh 0-9
