Navan O’Mahony’s 3-12
Kildalkey 3-13
Sport can be cruel and no more so than a single point loss in a final, In spite of a strong comeback from Navan O’Mahony’s, Kildalkey claimed the Div 5 HL honours by the narrowest of margins on Monday evening.
Eoghan Nugent opened the scoring for Navan O’Mahony’s, with a well taken point in the first minute. In the resulting play, Kildalkey found the net to give a two point lead. By the six-minute mark, O’Mahony’s had taken the lead again thanks to points from Jack Flynn and Paddy Skehan.
In the tenth minute, Skehan extended the lead but two points and a goal in quick succession put Kildalkey back in the lead. The sides exchanged points for the next few minutes, with Flynn and Skehan again scoring for the Navan men. Barry McEvoy found the net with a looped ball over the keepers head in the twenty-third minute before Kildalkey pucked the last three scores of the half in the closing minutes.
Navan O’Mahony’s 1-07
Kildalkey 2-08
Kildalkey got off to the better start in the second half, hitting three points in the first eight minutes to extend their lead to seven points. Substitute Shane McCarthy split the posts in the thirteenth minute.
At the opposite end of the pitch, Kildalkey nullified this with a point and followed up with a goal and another point to put eleven points between the sides. McCarthy sent over a free in the twentieth minute to leave ten points between the sides with ten minutes remaining.
Two minutes later, after a McCarthy point from play and a goal from Finn Malone, it was all to play for again with the gap reduced to six points. A McEvoy free in the twenty-third minute left five between the sides and in the twenty-eighth minute, Malone reduced it to four points.
With one minute left of normal time, McCarthy rattled the net again to leave the bare minimum between the sides. Time was running out for O’Mahony’s, and try as they might, they couldn’t get the equalising score. The final whistle blew two minutes later and Kildalkey had the day.
Navan O’Mahony’s
John Gleeson, Gerard Dillon, Fran Hynes, Cormac O’Shea, Evan Brady, Sam Formosa, Peter McLoughlin, Jack McConnell, Brian Dunne, Jack Flynn (0-02), Barry McEvoy (1-01), Paddy Skehan (0-04), Finn Malone (1-01), Andrew Snow, Eoghan Nugent (0-01)
Shane McCarthy (1-03) for Hynes, Diarmuid Collins for Skehan
