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Dublin Minor Footballers Must Do It All Again After Thrilling Leinster Final Draw - Tue, 14 Jul 2009

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Report from herald.ie

Dublin 1-10 Kildare 1-10

An injury-time point from Gary Sweeney was enough to earn Dublin a merited 1-10 apiece draw with Kildare in their absorbing ESB Leinster Minor Football Championship final at Croke Park yesterday. Sweeney's point from distance was just reward for a Dublin team that demonstrated great battling qualities, having fallen behind a minute earlier through the impressive Darrock Mulhall's superbly struck pressure kick from a '45'.

Dublin have now been extended beyond the 60 minutes for the third successive tie and their never-say-die spirit should stand them in good stead for the replay, scheduled for next Saturday afternoon (venue to be confirmed). However, Dublin's inability to translate their dominance, especially in the first half, into an unassailable advantage should be a concern for manager Cyril Kevlihan as they relinquished a healthy six-point lead. But Kevlihan was happy to accentuate the positives at the final whistle. "In fairness, we're not going to do it the easy way. There was never going to be more than a point between both sides and we're happy to be still alive. I'm delighted with how they responded and came back from the dead at the end."

Dublin, attacking Hill 16, started brightly and gained a foothold in midfield through Ciáran Reddin and Eoghan Keogh but poor shot selection from Paul Hudson in particular led to three wides in the opening two minutes as nerves unquestionably played their part in a scrappy opening. From limited possession, Kildare opened the scoring through a fine point from midfielder Tomás Moolick in the eighth minute but Dublin replied within a minute as Darragh Stapleton capitalised on some excellent build-up play from Gerry Seaver, Keogh, and Sweeney, to level matters. From the resultant kick-out, Sweeney left numerous defenders trailing in his wake with a sublime run and clipped point, but Mulhall soon equalised with a tidy point of his own, benefitting from Paul Cribbin's shrewd promptings.

Dublin continued to press and after Sweeney had regained Dublin's lead with another virtuoso score, team captain Colm Carr kicked a glorious sideline point to double Dublin's lead to 0-4 to 0-2 after 14 minutes. Kildare were all at sea at this stage and Dublin struck for the game's opening goal on 15 minutes when Carr showed great reflexes in following-up Hudson's point attempt to bravely fist home past an exposed Mark Donnellan in the Lilywhite goal. Within a minute Sweeney, who was becoming increasingly influential, missed a glorious opportunity to undermine the Kildare challenge when after doing all the spade work, he failed to apply a fitting climax to a wonderful solo run by screwing wide from eight metres.

Dublin appeared to lose their focus from that point and Kildare, driven on by Cribbin and Moolick, clawed their way back into the game through a Pádraig Fogarty free and, despite a Philip Ryan point from Gerry Seaver's probing pass in the 23rd minute, Dublin were hanging on for the half-time whistle. However, Kildare, after a series of poor wides, deservedly pounced for a well-worked team goal two minutes from the break when Fogarty calmly slotted home after Mulhall's clever pass to leave just three (1-6 to 1-3) between the sides at the interval. The second-half failed to replicate the skill levels of the opening period, but what it lacked in quality, it more than made up for it in excitement as Kildare continued to press Dublin's defence upon the resumption.

The scores were level at 1-7 apiece by the 42nd minute as three Fogarty points and another from Moolick had Kildare rampant, with Dublin's sole reply a close-in free from Hudson as their distribution from midfield became less precise. Sweeney's influence on matters was beginning to wane as Kevin Corrigan kept a tight rein on the talented St Sylvester's player, and any ball played into the Dublin forward line was being returned with interest by a hungry Kildare defence. As Dublin became increasingly ragged, Kildare seemed strangely reluctant to seize the initiative however, dropping two spare men behind the ball once they'd equalised, and despite Mulhall kicking a wonderful score to hand them a one point lead with a quarter remaining, their negativity allowed Dublin back into the game.

Central to Dublin's comeback were the displays of Seaver, Kevin O'Brien and Alan Carr in particular, and after Carr's storming run, cut short by a needless foul, Hudson had Dublin level with another free on 49 minutes. Within a minute, Carr kicked an inspirational point of his own to hand Dublin the lead, but two deadballs from Mulhall, the second from a '45', looked to have done enough for Kildare in sealing their first title at this level since 1991. But that was not accounting for Sweeney's late intervention as he split the posts in the 62nd minute after a composed Dublin attack to ensure another day out for both sides.

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