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Colm Carr Captains Dublin Minor Footballers To Leinster Football Final Replay Triumph - Tue, 21 Jul 2009

Congrats to Colm Carr, Niall O Dea, Philip Ryan, Kevin Twomey and the Dublin Minor Footballers on their Leinster Final Replay win over a determined Kildare team. It was a special moment for Colm Carr who captained the team to their provivicial success. It was a great thrill for him to lift the cup. Next up are Ulster Runners-up Down on August 1st/2nd.

Match Report:

Dublin claimed their first Leinster minor football title since 2003 with a hard fought 1-15 to 1-10 extra-time defeat of Kildare in Saturday's provincial final replay at Dr Cullen Park, Carlow. With the sides level at 1-9 apiece after 60 minutes, Dublin showed character and determination to pull away in extra-time and the confidence gained from extra-time wins over both Laois and Offaly in previous rounds certainly proved beneficial. There were many excellent displays throughout the team but Gary Sweeney's tour-de-force from centre-forward was crucial, with the St Sylvester's man scoring five points from play and penetrative runs were a constant threat to the Lilywhites. Eoghan Keogh is another who deserves huge praise for a dominant performance from wing-back and he instigated a number of Dublin attacks, as well as curtailing the influence of Seán Hurley with some superb fielding.

Dublin raced into an early three-point lead through a Paul Hudson free, a Darragh Stapleton effort and Feargal Duffy's fisted point. Kildare were winning plenty of possession but were particularly wasteful and their only reward was an excellent Paul Cribbin point on 11 minutes, but Dublin restored their three point lead when Feargal Breathnach followed up Duffy's blocked goal attempt to coolly slot over two minutes later. Sweeney took centre-stage entering the second quarter with two points inside a minute and Dublin took an eight point lead on 22 minutes when Hudson threw himself at Colm Carr's pass to deflect the ball past Mark Donellan into the Kildare net.

However, Dublin failed to build on their dominance and two points from Cian Reynolds cut Kildare's deficit to six points (1-6 to 0-3) at the break. The opening five minutes of the second-half were strewn with errors prior to Cribbin kicking an inspirational score for Kildare on 36 minutes but Sweeney cancelled out that score with a point of his own when Donellan tipped his shot over the bar after another trademark solo run. Hurley and Reynolds responded for Kildare and although Carr kicked a captain's point after 41 minutes, it was poor reward for their superiority. The Lilywhites continued to eat into Dublin's lead with points from Hurley and Cribbin to leave a goal between the teams entering the concluding ten minutes. Cribbin kicked another beauty before Dublin were hit with a sucker-punch when Darrock Mulhall raced on to John Comerford's hopeful punt to finish to the net following hesitation between Fionn Carney and goalkeeper David Downey.

Hudson showed great composure to bring Dublin level from a free on 55 minutes after a foul on Duffy and despite huge endeavour from both sides, neither were able to provide the killer blow. Extra-time was only three minutes old when Downey redeemed himself after his earlier lapse to deny Mulhall a second goal and points from Duffy, Hudson and Sweeney, with Mulhall replying for Kildare gave a two-point lead for the Dubs after the first period. Poor shooting prevented Kildare from closing the gap and as their confidence waned, Dublin punished them clinically with three superb points from Sweeney, Gerry Seaver and Hudson to secure a clean sweep of minor, under-21 and senior crowns for the Dubs for the first time since 1984.

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