Senior footballers stage grandstand finish to edge out Lilies

DUBLIN 0-16 KILDARE 2-8

An experimental Dublin side came with a storming finish to defeat Kildare in Sunday's Bord na Móna O'Byrne Cup semi-final at St Conleth's Park, Newbridge.

The Dubs scored the last five points of the match to snatch victory having trailed for most of this well-contested duel.

In fact Dublin led after ten minutes but did not get their noses in front again until  the impressive Niall Scully kicked the third of his points from play in the 70th minute to edge Dublin 0-15 to 2-8 in front.

In the third minute of added time Conor McHugh made sure with his third point to see the Dubs into the decider against Louth, who defeated Meath 1-14 to 0-10 in Navan.

Dublin were 2-8 to 0-11 in arrears with 15 minutes left but outworked Kildare until the finishing tape with Ross Hazley, Shane Cunningham, McHugh (free), Niall Scully following a quick free from McHugh, and Na Fianna clubman McHugh tagging the scores to see the Paul Clarke-managed side progress to the decider.

The final will take place in Gaelic Grounds, Drogheda next Sunday (2.0).

Kildare led 2-4 to 0-8 at the interval but it was the Dubs who concluded the half on the up with the last four points of the period.

The first half was a tale of goal-scoring chances taken and squandered - the Lilywhites scored two of their opportunities while Dublin were less clinical.

Dublin led 0-3 to 0-2 after ten minutes with their points coming from Paul Hudson (two, one free) and Conor McHugh before Kildare's Johnny Byrne ran unimpeded clean through on the Dubs goal before firing to he net.

Immediately Dublin counter-attacked but Ross Hazley blazed wide when in a one-on-one with Kildare keeper Mark Donnellan.

In the 20th minute Dublin had another goal-scoring chance but Mark Donnellan denied Paul Hudson from close range.

To compound that Kildare raised a second green flag when Daniel Flynn scrambled the ball over the line following Niall Kelly's incisive run to give the hosts a 2-4 to 0-4 advantage in the 21st minute.

However, Kildare failed to score again in the opening half as Dublin finished the stronger.

Shane Boland ignited the Dublin run with a fine point before Ciarán Reddin slotted over from 30 metres to reduce the cap further.

In the dying minutes of the half Paul Hudson grabbed his fourth point of the half (two from play, two frees) before Jason Whelan powered through the Kildare defence and fired over to make it 2-4 to 0-8 at the half-time break.

SCORERS - Dublin: P Hudson 0-4 (0-2f), N Scully, C McHugh (0-1f) 0-3 each, S Boland, C Reddin, J Whelan, C Basquel, R Hazley, S Cunningham 0-1 each. Kildare: J Byrne, D Flynn 1-0 each, N Kelly, P Cribbin, N Flynn (0-1f) 0-2 each, K Feely, B McCormack 0-1 each.

DUBLIN : E Comerford; J Smith, E O'Brien, R McGowan; R Gaughan, C Reddin, C Mullally; J Whelan, R Hazley; N Scully, S Boland, N Walsh; P Hudson, M Deegan, C McHugh. Subs: C Basquel for Walsh (31), K O’Gara for Deegan (ht), R McDaid for Boland (ht), S Cunningham for Hudson (42), G Ivory for Reddin (59).

KIILDARE: M Donnellan; M O'Grady, D Hyland, M Hyland; J Byrne, E Doyle, K Cribbin; K Feely, F Dowling; F Conway, N Kelly, P Cribbin; N Flynn, D Flynn, B McCormack. Subs: T Moolick for Feely (ht), O Lyons for M Hyland (ht), E Callaghan for McCormack (47), C McNally for P Cribbin (49), S Ryan for K Cribbin (57), C Hartley for Conway (63), D Slattery for N Flynn (64), C O’Donoghue for Doyle (68, black card).

REF: D Hickey (Carlow).