Kerry Substitute Nail Late Points As League Champions Win Arm-wrestle With Armagh – UK Prime News

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE DIVISION 1, ROUND 4

Kerry 0-12

Armagh 0-11

What a difference a week makes. Seven days ago Tony Brosnan was shunted down cul-de-sacs and into obscurity in Castlebar. Donal O’Sullivan hardly got a kick at the same venue on a frustrating night for the Kilgarvan man. A week on and both scored late and crucial scores as Kerry got their League title defence back on track with the sort of gut-check win over Armagh that Jack O’Connor loves.

With the teams level at 0-10 apiece as the game tipped past 70 minutes might O’Connor or his counterpart Kieran McGeeney have settled for a draw and a point at that stage? Nah, we didn’t think so either. Neither man, nor neither of these teams, are much minded for taking a backward step, and so it was that the last seven minutes of this tense, cagey but never not captivating game, produced a grandstand finish.

In the 70th minute Brosnan found a pocket of space to sling over the lead point from near the terrace sideline, the sixth time Kerry lead Armagh by a point. Four minutes later Donal O’Sullivan fisted over Kerry’s 12th score, and one that looked like the insurance point. And yet, and yet.

In the 77th minute Armagh were granted one more chance, manufacturing a 20-metre free, which Rian O’Neill stood over knowing what was needed. He faced pretty much the whole Kerry team on Shane Ryan’s goal line but he couldn’t manage to keep his shot on target; the ball flying over the crossbar for the most redundant of points.

And so it was that Kerry righted much of the wrongs of the previous weekend’s malfunction against Mayo and responded in a manner than pleased their manager – and themselves, no doubt – no end.

It was a resurgent Kerry team that took to the field in front of a 11,603, bringing al the required energy and intensity that was absent in Castlebar, but they met an Armagh team that was structured and stout and in no mood for an open game that the benign conditions might have lent themselves to and up-for-it crowd would have wanted.

The teams were deadlocked at 0-6 apiece at the end of a cagey first half, with the visitors surely the happier side having sat back for much of the opening period, content to invite Kerry to try and picked their way through a massed defence.

That Kerry managed just four points from play, two more free close-range frees, and registered just one wide, said as much about Armagh’s disciplined and structured defending as it did about Kerry’s cutting edge in attack, though a partisan home crowd were enraged with some refereeing decisions that went against them in the first half.

Those two Kerry frees were converted by David Clifford and Sean O’Shea, though it was some source of frustration that neither man – both making their first start of the season – could raise a flag from play, though Clifford still finished Kerry’s top scorer with four pointed frees on a night Kerry had nine scorers.

Kerry were first off the mark with a Clifford free in the fifth minute and they were 0-4 to 0-2 ahead after 15 minutes, with Armagh seemingly happy to choke up the Kerry forwards with that packed defence and then look to hit the home side on the counter-attack.

Points from Rian O’Neill (play and a free) and full back Aidan Forker brought Armagh level on the scoreboard at 0-5 apiece just after the half hour mark, with Barry O’Sullivan and Stefan Campbell adding a point each for their teams to make it 0-6 each at the break.

The second half was just as tight and attritional with referee James Molloy busy keeping things from boiling over, and the judicious issuing of a few yellow cards managed to keep a lid on things.

Early second half points from Greg McCabe and half time sub Conor Turbitt edged Armagh into a two-point lead, and it took until the 48th minute until Kerry were back on terms. Kerry’s seventh point came from Tadhg Morley and it was arguably Kerry’s most important of the game. Had Armagh been able to open up a three-point lead then they might just have been able to kick on for the winning line and maybe got there.

Minutes after Morley’s point David Clifford missed a banker free from dead centre, leaving it short into Ethan Rafferty’s hands. It was huge oxygen for Armagh but a minute later he sucked it all back out of them with a super free from near the sideline.

The teams were still level, 0-10 each, on the 70-minute mark when Brosnan and then O’Sullivan made the big plays to get Kerry over the winning line.

KERRY: Shane Ryan, Graham O’Sullivan, Jason Foley, Tom O’Sullivan, Stefan Okunbor, Tadhg Morley 0-1, Paul Murphy 0-1, Jack Barry, Barry O’Sullivan 0-1, Dara Moynihan, Seán O’Shea 0-1 (f), Adrian Spillane, Paudie Clifford 0-1, David Clifford 0-4 (4f), Darragh Roche 0-1. Subs: Micheál Burns for A Spillane (47), Tony Brosnan 0-1 for D Roche (50), Ruairi Murphy for P Clifford (63), Dónal O’Sullivan 0-1 for D Moynihan (69)

ARMAGH: Ethan Rafferty 0-1 (f), Paddy Burns, Aidan Forker 0-1, Greg McCabe0-1, Conor O’Neill, Aaron McKay, Jarly Óg Burns 0-2 Ciaran Mackin, Callum Cumiskey, Andrew Murnin, Tiernan Kelly, Rian O’Neill 0-4 (4f), Stefan Campbell 0-1, Jason Duffy. Subs: Joe McElroy for C O’Neill (temp, 22-77), Conor Turbitt 0-1 for T Kelly (ht), Ross McQuillan for S Campbell (55), Jemar Hall for C Cumiskey (63), Niall Grimley for C Macklin (73), Justin Kieran for A Forker (73)

REFEREE: James Molloy (Galway)