February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Reflecting on another opportunity that slipped away, they now have to prepare for a replay at Killarney, where traditionally Kerry rule the roost.
“This was a game we should have won,” said Limerick manager Liam Kearns. “We put ourselves in a winning position and we didn’t take it. We made mistakes that cost us, but you saw out there that Kerry are a very beatable side. We didn’t beat them, and that’s the bottom line.”
If Limerick were frustrated by their own wastefulness, Kerry were frustrated by the performance of whistle-happy referee Gerry Kinneavy, who needed a police escort from the pitch.
“I’ll let you say what you want about the ref,” sighed Kerry manager Jack O’Connor. “We certainly feel hard done by over a few of those decisions.”
While Kinneavey’s reading of the game might not have been to Kerry’s liking, they were lucky to escape with a draw. Comprehensively outplayed by Limerick during the first half, they somehow managed to be just three points in arrears at the interval.
For all Limerick’s cohesion early on as John Quane dominated midfield, they contrived to hand a soft goal to Kerry. An error by Stephen Lucey was capitalized on by Liam Hassett, and eventually Colm Cooper picked out Mike Frank Russell with an excellent pass.
Despite Russell’s finish, Kerry were struggling without the injured Seamus Moynihan and Declan O’Sullivan, and Limerick responded by scoring four points without reply. They soon added a goal, which was impressively put away by Stephen Lavin after John Galvin’s high catch, but Kerry hit back with three points in injury time.
Having lost freetaker Muiris Gavin through injury, Limerick also lost some momentum, but it still took Kerry 25 minutes to draw level. When a further seven minutes of injury time were announced, it seemed as if Kerry would buckle only for some superb defensive work by Darragh O Se.
“We were quite sure we were going to win it,” said a bitterly disappointed Gavin, “and it’s a question of who’s going to recover quickest now. It feels like an anti-climax now, but we’ll deal with it.”
Winning a game will be tougher, rewriting history, tougher still.
WEXFORD 2-14, OFFALY 0-15
It’s not so unusual that Wexford win championship games, not so unusual that they beat Offaly either, but that’s when you’re talking about hurling. Football is a lesser deal in the Leinster county, so there was good reason for the celebrations last weekend as Wexford knocked Offaly out of Round Two of the All-Ireland qualifiers.
One player doesn’t necessarily make a team. However, if Mattie Forde was removed from the Wexford lineup, the rest would probably be better off staying at home. Forde added another chapter to his summer of scoring with a magnificent 2-10, 2-7 of which he generated from play. Offaly quite simply had no answer to his brilliance.
“They put three different men on him, but really God couldn’t have marked him in that sort of form,” said a beaming Wexford manager Pat Roe. Forde’s first goal came from a fisted effort close to halftime, while he hit a crucial second 12 minutes from the end. Wexford now go on to meet Derry in the next round.
DUBLIN 1-17, LONGFORD 0-11
In the third round, Dublin appear to be getting their house in order of the evidence of last Saturday’s convincing victory over Longford. After a sluggish start, Dublin produced some of their best form of the season with Darren Magee outstanding at midfield.
There were also important attacking contributions from Senan Connell and Ciaran Whelan as goalscorer Ian Robertson, Alan Brogan, Jason Sherlock and Tomas Quinn eventually got the better of the Longford defense.