Treaty despair as Kildare escape

Limerick frustrated Kildare for so long with a well thought out and executed plan, but in the end it was the Shannonsiders who left Portlaoise exasperated.

Kieran McGeeney’s words of praise will have meant little because they were so close to taking a prized scalp and they have had their fill of moral victories.

With Paudie Browne augmenting the full-back line and Seamus 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 with him in typical fashion and the big man was replaced in the second half.

The failure to feed off their target man forced Kildare to return to what they’re best at though: running at pace and angles around the man in possession. It wasn’t until extra-time, when the rigours of 90 minutes the previous week clearly took their toll on Limerick, and fresh legs from the Kildare bench had an impact, that the fluidity returned, but they had done just enough to give themselves that opportunity.

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 the Munster men 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 yards before James Kavanagh reduced the margin to the minimum, after Foley had made a stunning block at the other end.

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.

“We did well and have to hold our heads up high. We’ve been right up punching with the heavyweights at times and that’s the thing about Limerick people, they have this never-say-die attitude and you see that in other sports. They can pull it out from the fire. Just when you think they are down, there they are fighting for their lives and we almost had what would have been an unbelievable victory.”

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 Seanie 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. 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 (Davis) for (the fitness). They’re in good shape.

“It was a great game for us I think. Mentally it helps going on. We’ve Sligo next week, who by all accounts should’ve beaten Mayo. We know we’re up against it again but it’s great to have that there in your back pocket knowing you can come out of those type of games.”

Scorers for Kildare: M Conway (2fs); J Kavanagh 0-3 each; J Doyle (fs), S Johnston, E O’Flaherty(1f) 0-2 each; A Smith, R Kelly, M Foley, E Bolton, P O’Neill, M O’Flaherty, E Doyle 0-1 each.

Scorers for Limerick: I Ryan 0-8(5fs); S Kelly, D Quaid, G Collins, E O’Connor 0-1 each.

Subs for Kildare: P O’Neill for R Kelly (48); S Johnston for E O’Flaherty (48); P Fogarty for O’Connor (56); E Callaghan for Smith (66); G White for Bolton inj (74); A Mac Lochlainn for Lyons inj (74); E O’Flaherty for M O’Flaherty inj (80).

Subs for Limerick: D Quaid for Lane (22); I Corbett for O’Carroll (51); B O’Brien for Donovan (54); J O’Meara for Kelly (61); J Cooke for Collins (68); S Kelly for Riordan (83).

Referee: B Cassidy (Derry).