NFL Division 3
Kildare 1-26 Antrim 1-15
Antrim’s fate was confirmed in Newbridge on Sunday when they lost to now promoted Kildare but the game was far more eventful than the 11-point margin at the final whistle might suggest.
Brian Flanagan’s team knew coming into the game that they would be promoted if they could overcome an Antrim side who already had one foot in division 4 following their defeat to Sligo the previous weekend and the visitors got off to a bad start when Niall Kelly, Callum Bolton and Alex Beirne kicked two points each as Kildare scored the first six points of the game inside the opening 14 minutes.
However, Antrim came storming back into the game with the wind at their backs and Conor Stewart kicked their first point of the game in the 15th minute from outside the two point arc and they would go on to kick a further five 2 pointers before the half time whistle.
Dominic McEnhill was excellent from distance as he kicked three two-pointers, including two from frees after Kildare didn’t leave the required number of players up the field.
From Stewart’s first two-pointer, Antrim outscored Kildare by 0-14 to 0-3 in the last 20 minutes of the half and led by 0-14 to 0-9 at the break and were good value for their lead in St. Ternach’s Park
Kildare looked in a bit of trouble with their promotion ambitions depending on the result from Sunday’s game but the windy conditions aided their cause and there was a different intensity from Kildare after the break.
The introduction of Ben McCormack at half time and then later in the half of Paddy McDermott and Darragh Kirwan hugely helped the Kildare cause and in total their bench contributed 10 second-half points.
Kildare scored the first 1-8 of the second half, including a well taken Niall Kelly goal in the 44th minute before Ryan McQuillan finally got the Saffrons going again with a good point.
The home team were six points ahead with seven minutes to play but a battling Antrim never gave up and they pulled a goal back through Fionn Nagle and the fat was back in the fire.
Antrim suffered a blow when Eoghan McCabe was shown a red card in the 70th minute after picking up a second yellow card and that certainly didn’t help the Saffron cause but they can take some consolation from another descent performance.
Not for the first time this season Antrim showed in spells that they are as good as most of the teams in the division but have been unable to sustain that high level of performance for 70 minutes and it is something they will be attempting to address for the visit of Armagh in three weeks’ time
Scorers for Kildare: N Kelly 1-4, D Kirwan 0-5 (2ptf), A Beirne 0-6 (2ptf,1f), C Bolton 0-2, C Dalton 0-2, B McCormack 0-2, R Sinkey 0-1, K Feely 0-1f, B McLoughlin 0-1, P McDermott 0-1, T Archbold 0-1.
Antrim: D McEnhill 0-8 (3 2ptfs, 1 2pt), C Stewart 0-3 (2pt), P McBride 0-2 (2pt), F Nagle 1-0, R McQuillan 0-2 (1f).
KILDARE: Cian Burke; Harry O’Neill, Mick O’Grady, Brian Byrne; Ryan Houlihan, James McGrath, David Hyland; Callum Bolton, Aaron Masterson; Cathal Hagney, Alex Beirne, Colm Dalton; Ryan Sinkey, Kevin Feely, Niall Kelly. Subs: Ben McCormack for Hagney, h/t; Paddy McDermott for Masterson, 44; Darragh Kirwan for Sinkey, 50; Brian McLoughlin for McCormack, 63; Tony Archbold for Beirne, 70.
ANTRIM: Luke Mulholland; Eoghan McCabe, Eunan Walsh, Kavan Keegan; James McAuley, Jack Lenehan, Dermot McAleese; Conor Stewart, Patrick Finnegan; Patrick McBride, Niall Burns, Ruairi McCann; Conor Hand, Dominic McEnhill, Ryan McQuillan. Subs: Eunan Quinn for Hand, 41; Fiionn Nagle for Finnegan, 50; Ronan Boyle for Keenan, 60; Calum Higgins for Burns, 65; James McDonnell for Walsh, 68.
REFEREE: Brendan Griffin (Kerry).