February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Mike Fitzpatrick
Kerry 0-15
Longford 0-9
This senior game Sunday at Gaelic Park had all the potential to be a cracking display of exhibitionist football, with the two best sides in Div. II coming up against each other for a battle of supremacy. Both teams are safe in the division, having already qualified for playoff contention, so the eventual result mattered little but for reasons of pride.
Longford opened on the sharper footing, with All-Star Kevin Lilly shooting a couple of efforts over the bar.
Kerry, however, had a number of decisive weapons up their sleeve and Seamus Harkan and Darren Reddy got the Munster side on the scoring charts with some fine efforts.
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Reddy, in particular, had an outstanding game, thoroughly reveling in his role as something of a team leader, in voice if not in actuality. His vocal efforts thoroughly inspiring his team to victory.
Willie O’Donnell hit a fine point for Kerry and, coming toward the end of the half, Kerry had gained a slight lead, with just two points in the difference.
After the break, Kerry introduced Pádraig Joyce, who many felt should really have been on from the start.
The Kerry management obviously knew what they were up to though, as Joyce fired forward and hit three consecutive points for his side to give the lads from the Kingdom a healthy lead.
Lilly and his cohorts Francis Glackan and Michael McKenna continued to battle in an effort to narrow the deficit, but Joyce could not be stopped, his fourth point of the afternoon furthering Kerry’s lead. As the game wore on, it became increasingly obvious that Kerry would walk out as the victors.
A 6-point defeat is not something Noel Lennon’s men are generally accustomed to, but the fact that they have already qualified for the next rounds of the competition perhaps had some bearing on the outcome.
Longford will surely pick themselves up after this one and go out with all guns blazing in their final game in a couple of weeks at Gaelic Park.
Longford: Oliver Murphy, Niall Cassidy, Joseph Foley, Thomas Bermingham, Dessie McGoldrick, Dermot Harrington, Diarmuid Slattery, Kevin Lilly (0-6), Francis Glackan (0-1), Michael McKenna (0-1), Brendan Lennon, Brendan Donaghue (0-1), Jay McFarrell, David Phalen, Jack Lynn Subs: Alan Bracken, Philip Bermingham, Aidan McGoldrick, Barry Kavanagh
Kerry: Robbie Dowd, Niall Sugrue, Paul Gallivan, Paul Dillon, Louis Holland, Johnny Driscoll, Kieran Driscoll, Paddy Connor, Willie O’Donnell (0-1), Mike Carmody (0-2), Darren Reddy (0-5), Bingo Driscoll (0-1), Dave McCarthy, John Sexton, Seamus Harkan (0-2), Subs Pádraig Joyce (0-4), Páidi Mulvihill, Ciaran Cull.