McGeeney: referee made it exciting game in second-half

KIERAN McGEENEY praised a referee yesterday but the Kildare boss had his tongue planted firmly in his cheek when offering kudos to Pat Fox for making this game exciting by giving DCU a host of scoreable frees.

Donie Shine supplied all bar one of his side’s scores and seven of them came from frees, with his county colleague Cathal Cregg providing DCU’s only point from play in the 29th minute.

“In the second-half we were very sloppy with our shooting, but in fairness to Pat Fox I thought he made a good game of it and gave Donie plenty of practice,” said McGeeney afterwards. I’d like to see the stats. I think we got one free kick inside the 50. I thought Pat Fox made it an exciting game in the second-half.”

A first-half midfield dominance was at the heart of the home side’s success and with the defensive effort keeping the college side’s much vaunted attack in check, they were comfortable from the time youngster Fionn Dowling punched to the roof of the DCU net in the 14th minute.

That put them five points clear, even though Donie Shine had given DCU the lead with the opening score from a free.

Unfortunately, the visitors were utterly reliant on the Roscommon man’s accuracy from placed balls and only managed one score from play over the 70 minutes, when Shine’s county colleague Cathal Cregg finished well from a tight angle in the 29th minute.

In contrast, Kildare had eight scorers, seven of whom scored from play including defender Eamonn Callaghan and midfielders Pádraig O’Neill and Hugh Lynch, while also shooting 16 wides.

O’Neill was responsible for the score of the game, following up a point from 45m by fetching a Michael Boyle kick out on the run around 60m out, carrying 10m and lofting over awonderful kick.

Kieran McGeeney’s men led by 1-8 to 0-4 at the break but Shine converted three frees on the trot as DCU began to get on top after the resumption.

Rookie Kildare goalkeeper Shane Connolly made two excellent saves and then at the death denied Conor Rafferty from the penalty spot twice as referee Pat Fox deemed him to have come off his line the first time.

By that stage the game was up though, Mark O’Sullivan bringing his tally to three with two snappy finishes, and there was only time for Shine to loft over the resultant 45.

KILDARE: S Connolly; C Fitzpatrick, M Foley, O Lyons; E Callaghan 0-1, M Scanlon, D Whyte; H Lynch 0-1, P O’Neill 0-2; M O’Sullivan 0-3, E O’Flaherty 0-1, T Moolick 0-2; K Ennis 0-1, W Heffernan, F Dowling 1-0.

Subs: H McGrillen for Foley inj (ht); A Smith for Ennis (46); K Cribbin for Fitzpatrick (46); R Walsh for Dowling (57); E Bolton for Lyons inj (70)

DCU: M Boyle (Donegal); N Collins (Roscommon), K Gavin (Westmeath), S Ormsby (Roscommon); J McCarthy (Dublin), B Cullen (Dublin), N Adam (Monaghan); M McElhinney (Donegal), D Shine (Roscommon) 0-8(7fs, 1 45); P Andrews (Dublin), D O’Gara (Roscommon) , C Cregg (Roscommon) 0-1; D Kelly (Sligo), M Murphy (Donegal), C McGuinness (Monaghan).

Subs: C Lillis (Laois) for McCarthy inj (8); C Rafferty (Louth) for Murphy inj (28); F O’Shea (Cork) for McElhinney (ht); R Quinlivan (Wexford) for Cregg (50); C Hughes (Monaghan) for Lillis (51)

Referee: P Fox (Westmeath).