Kerry through to first Christy Ring Cup final

Kerry 2-17 Wicklow 2-14

Kerry are through to their first ever Christy Ring Cup final after they defeated Wicklow on a scoreline of 2-17 to 2-14 at Nenagh this afternoon.

It was a cracking contest and one which Wicklow will want to forget.

Even though they led for long stretches of the match and looked like likely winners, Kerry’s late scoring tour-de-force which yielded 2-4 in 13 minutes was enough to send them through to the final on July 3.

Beaten by Carlow in last year’s penultimate round, the Kingdom were eager to go one better this term and will start next month’s decider full of confidence after an escape borne out of a never-say-die attitude.

The heroes were Mikey Boyle and Gary O’Brien whose goals inside the final 10 minutes swung the tie in their favour but huge inputs were also recorded by Darragh O’Conell-who finished the game with 0-11 points and John Egan at wing forward gave another eye catching display.

Even though they lost Andrew Keane to a straight red card after only five minutes following an off-the-ball incident, they steadied themselves admirably and were level 1-7 to 0-10 points at the break. The Garden county goal coming from Andy O’Brien.

O’Brien added a second goal on the resumption which put them into a commanding five points lead with less than 15 minutes to play. Don Highland was once again imperious, notching seven points while Ronan Kelly also bagged a couple.

Crucially though, they could not shake off Kerry and O’Connell kept them in touch with his frees.

Then came the late show and two goals in quick succession had Wicklow on their knees. Late points by O’Connell saw Kerry run out winners.