ALL-IRELAND SFC QUALIFIERS ROUND THREE Kildare 0-19 Limerick 0-12 (After extra-time):LIMERICK WENT agonisingly close to springing another qualifier shock and ending Kildare's unbeaten run through the qualifiers since Kieran McGeeney came on board in 2008.
Close isn’t good enough though and McGeeney’s praise will have meant little because they were so close to taking a prized scalp and have had their fill of moral victories.
With Paudie Browne augmenting the full-back line and Séamus O’Carroll also coming deep, the Limerick defence looked impregnable at times, even as Kildare dominated the possession stakes in the second half.
Tomás O’Connor started well for the Lilywhites but Stephen Lucey got to grips on him in typical fashion and the big man was replaced in the second half.
Ian Ryan gave Peter Kelly a torrid time until the supply dried up. At least three of his pointed frees came from fouls on the St Senan’s man and he had five points on the board as Limerick led 0-7 to 0-4 at half-time.
Mick Foley, Johnny Doyle and Emmet Bolton were colossal in the second half as Kildare upped the tempo significantly, but Limerick didn’t go back into their shells.
Rob Kelly and Foley reduced the margin to one early in the second half, but Ryan and Collins responded in kind. John Riordan got in behind the Kildare defence but blazed wide. A point at that juncture might have been significant.
Brian Scanlon pointed a free in the 50th minute to restore a three-point advantage but Limerick didn’t score again until the second half of extra time.
Doyle landed a 58th-minute free from 45 metres before James Kavanagh reduced the margin to the minimum, after Foley had made a stunning block at the other end of the field.
And when Kavanagh won possession deep in his own half, Bolton embarked on an unbelievable 80-metre lung-bursting run that involved two exchanges of passes, the last from Peter Kelly. He somehow had the composure after all that to fire over and the majority of the 11,345 in attendance at O’Moore Park went wild.
It was one-way traffic in extra time, with Kildare scoring six points to break the Treaty men’s resistance.
“Gut wrenching, really” was the understandable reaction of Limerick manager, Maurice Horan. “We knew once they got back we’d be under pressure in injury time. Especially after last weekend, that took its toll. You keep going back to the same guys to produce. And in fairness they do but you can’t maintain that and it was 200 minutes of football in eight days and that’s tough on the body.
“We were 30 seconds from knocking them out and they got an unbelievable score from their own corner. We thought we had our homework done, we held them to 11 points over 70 minutes which is a fair achievement considering some of the scores they can put up.”
As he said though, Kildare kept coming “in waves and waves”. And that – as well as not having to answer a question for the first time in months about Seánie Johnston, who scored two points off the bench – must have been very pleasing for McGeeney.
“It was a great game of football. I suppose Limerick won’t get the credit they deserve. They’ve done it to Cork, they done it to Longford last week and they did it to us today. They play a lot of men behind the ball, they’re good at it. They keep the scores nice and low and it keeps them in the game. I thought they played very well.
“I thought we were a wee bit flat in the first half but we picked it up. It was still hard to get the scores but in fairness to our boys, they showed great character. That’s why you train hard and the credit has to go to Julie for . They’re in good shape.”
KILDARE: S Connolly; P Kelly, H McGrillen, O Lyons; E Bolton (0-1), M O'Flaherty (0-1), E Doyle (0-1); M Foley (0-1), R Kelly (0-1); E O'Flaherty (0-2, 0-1 free), J Doyle (0-2, frees), M Conway (0-3, 0-2 frees); A Smith (0-1), T O'Connor, J Kavanagh (0-3). Subs: P O'Neill (0-1) for R Kelly (48 mins); S Johnston (0-2) for E O'Flaherty (48 mins), P Fogarty for O'Connor (56 mins), E Callaghan for Smith (66 mins), G White for Bolton, A Mac Lochlainn for Lyons (both 74 mins), E O'Flaherty for M O'Flaherty (80 mins).
LIMERICK: B Scanlon; A Lane, S Lucey, J McCarthy; J Riordan, L O'Dwyer, P Ranahan; J Donovan, S Buckley; E O'Connor (0-1), S Kelly (0-1), P Browne; G Collins (0-1), S O'Carroll, I Ryan (0-8, 0-5 frees). Subs: D Quaid (0-1) for Lane (22 mins), I Corbett for O'Carroll (51 mins), B O'Brien for Donovan (54 mins); J O'Meara for Kelly (61 mins); J Cooke for Collins (68 mins), S Kelly for Riordan (83 mins).
Referee: B Cassidy(Derry).
