East Kerry overcome inspired challenge from St Kieran's

East Kerry's David Clifford protests a decision with referee Jonathan Griffin.

East Kerry 2-13 St Kieran's 1-14 

Champions East Kerry had to dig deep into their reserves of guts and fighting spirit before surmounting an inspired challenge from St Kieran’s in a pulsating Kerry SFC quarter-final at Austin Stack Park tonight, though star man David Clifford was sent off in the dying moments.

Trailing by three points (1-13 to 1-10) at the second half water break after James Walsh’s superb goal for the underdogs, Jerry O’Sullivan’s star-studded outfit appeared to be in big trouble, having also survived a missed penalty from St Kieran’s earlier in the half when Paul Walsh’s effort was well saved by Kerry goalkeeper Shane Ryan.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man, however, as a hitherto subdued Clifford struck for East Kerry’s killer second goal in the 55th minute after brother Paudie and Darragh Roche created the opening for the Kerry captain to drill a low shot to the back of the St Kieran’s net.

Even though the outstanding Eddie Horan immediately levelled the scores again (2-11 to 1-14), East Kerry now had the bit between their teeth, with the Clifford brothers adding the final two points of an exceptional contest.

East Kerry's Brendan O’Keeffe and David Clifford after the game.

However, there was huge controversy at the very end when, after an off-the-ball incident, David Clifford was shown a straight red card by referee Jonathan Griffin, which would appear to rule the winners’ talisman out of the semi-final.

East Kerry led at the break by a single point (1-7 to 0-9) after an opening half full of sparkling passages of football from both teams.

Indeed, St Kieran’s were left rueing three missed goal chances that would have put a different complexion on the scoreboard, with Eddie Horan, Paul Walsh and Thomas Hickey all missing chances to raise the green flag.

At the other end, Paudie Clifford showed them how it was done with a superb left-footed finish to notch East Kerry’s first goal, but it was brother David who was the talking point, for different reasons, at the final whistle.

Scorers for East Kerry: D Clifford 1-5 (0-4 frees), P Clifford 1-1, D Roche 0-4 (0-2 frees), E Cronin 0-2, J Sherwood 0-1.

EAST KERRY: S Ryan (Rathmore); C O’Donoghue (Glenflesk), J Sherwood (Firies), P Warren (Gneeveguilla); S Cronin (Spa), D O’Donoghue (Spa), P Murphy (Rathmore); D O’Brien (Glenflesk), R Buckley (Listry); D Moynihan (Spa), P Clifford (Fossa), B O’Keeffe (Rathmore); D Clifford (Fossa), D Roche (Glenflesk), E Cronin (Spa).

Subs: M Foley (Spa) for E Cronin (47 mins), M Ryan (Rathmore) for O’Keeffe (47 mins), P Doyle (Gneeveguilla) for O’Brien (56 mins).

Scorers for St Kieran’s: E Horan 0-8 (0-5 frees), J Walsh 1-1, P Walsh 0-2 (0-1 free), S Og O Ciardubhain (’45), P O’Connor and M Hickey 0-1 each.

ST KIERAN’S: S Og O Ciardubhain; B Leonard, E Kiely, M Reidy; L Brosnan, A Donoghue, S Horan; J Walsh, M Hickey; P O’Connor, E Horan, P Walsh; T Hickey, A Breen, T Lynch.

Subs: A Barry for S Horan (58 mins), V Horan for Walsh (60 mins).

REFEREE: J Griffin (Glenbeigh-Glencar).