February 15, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By John Markey
Sunday’s concluding senior football fixture brought together two of the contenders for honors in the second division and by this stage of the evening they had to contend with very heavy ground conditions due to the incessant rain at Gaelic Park.
With Kingdom native Paddy Kearney returning to the helm this year, big things are expected from Kerry. Such is the level of optimism in their ranks that they believe they can annex the Div. II title and have a major impact on the destination of the “A” championship. Their opening performance was impressive and their weeks of preparation certainly paid dividends with a 1-11 to 1-4 triumph over Celtics.
Celtics, however, will have to improve in front of goal as Sunday’s total of 1-4 will not be enough to win many games.
Colm Wilson opened the scoring for Kerry with a well taken goal, and, in the first 30 minutes, he was Kerry’s only scorer. He did in fact register enough in the opening 15 minutes to allow his side to hold an interval lead, 1-2 to 0-3.
In the second half Ken Cox’s perseverance brought Celtics an early goal and back on level terms but only one further point would see them fall out of contention. With William O’Donnell, Mike Carmody and Kieran Cull getting in on the scoring act for Kerry, it helped them on the way to a well deserved two points.
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Adrian Rieney, Kevin Shalvey, Paddy O’Connor, William O’Donnell, Mike Carmody and Colm Wilson were Kerry’s best with John Walsh, Pat Donohue, Sean McVeigh, Danny O’Sullivan, Ken Cox and David O’Sullivan trying for Celtics.
Kerry scorers: C. Wilson 1-5, M. Carmody 0-2, K. Cull 0-2, W. O’Donnell and P. Mulvihill both 0-1.
Celtics: K. Cox 1-1, D. O’Sullivan, D. McVeigh and David O’Sullivan, all 0-1.