Alex Beirne of Kildare kicks a point during the Allianz Football League Division 3 match between Kildare and Antrim at Cedral St. Conleth's Park in Newbridge, Kildare. Photo by Thomas Flinkow/Sportsfile.
ALLIANZ NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE ROUNDUP
DIVISION THREE RESULTS
CLARE 2-14 (2-0-14) OFFALY 2-9 (2-1-7)
KILDARE 1-26 (1-2-22) ANTRIM 1-15 (1-6-3)
FERMANAGH 1-18 (1-1-16) LAOIS 2-13 (2-2-9)
SLIGO 0-32 (0-1-30) LEITRIM (0-0-10)
Offaly and Kildare wrapped up their promotion from Division Three of the Allianz Football League this afternoon but Clare will feel that they wouldn’t have needed a lot more to go their way for them to have pipped the Faithful County at the post.
The Banner men needed to win by 11 points at Zimmer Biomet Cusack Park and the fact that their two goals, both from Aaron Griffin, arrived late in the game suggested that Offaly were never under any real pressure in Ennis.
However Clare will look back at their woeful inaccuracy in the first half as the reason that they will play their league football in the third tier next Spring. They had 11 first half wides, six of those efforts from two point range, while they also passed up a couple of good goal chances, with Keelan Sexton hitting the post and Paddy Dunican pulling off a fine save to deny Emmet McMahon.
Meanwhile Offaly had just two wides of their own in that period, while they hit the net twice – once from a long Jordan Hayes delivery that John Furlong touched into the net, and another slick team move that was finished by the impressive Cathal Flynn.
Clare continued to enjoy more possession and chances into the second half but a Paddy Dunican double meant that they still trailed by the hour mark, and it was only their late surge, with Griffin raising two green flags, that turned the result.
Clare still could have gone up if Antrim did them a favour at Cedral St. Conleth’s Park, and if you weren’t there in Newbridge, the 0-14 to 0-9 half-time score in favour of the Saffrons hinted at that possibility.
However there was a very strong breeze at play and 0-12 out of that 0-14 came from six kicks, four of those from Dominic McEnhill. Antrim also started slowly, conceiding the first six points, two each to Alex Beirne, Callum Bolton and Niall Kelly.
Just one point was added to the scoreboard for the first nine minutes of the second half but once Niall Kelly hit the net for the Lily Whites, they caught fire, hitting 0-16 in the last 25 minutes. Darragh Kirwan came off the bench to shoot 0-5, Alex Beirne hit 0-6, while Niall Kelly brought his tally to 1-4 by the end.
By that stage of the contest, Antrim knew that their faint hopes of avoiding relegation had been extinguished, as they needed to win, but also for Leitrim to help them out by winning in Markievicz Park.
That was never on the cards as Sligo had an incredible day of shooting at their home field, raising 30 white flags to go with their single orange from Patrick O’Connor.
Evan Harkin’s equaliser in the 12th minute made it 0-3 each but Sligo hit the next 11 on the bounce, and were full value for their 0-15 to 0-6 interval lead, with Tom Prior the leading light in the Leitrim attack.
Pat Spillane, and Niall Murphy hit 0-6 each with Cian Lally adding 0-5 on a day when Sligo scored just one free, the rest from open play.
Fermanagh end the season in fourth place in the Division after they came back from five points behind just after the hour mark to sneak a two-point win over Laois in an entertaining contest at Brewster Park.
Laois made the stronger start in Enniskillen with the breeze behind them, but they suddenly found themselves trailing when Paul Breen reacted quickest to Killian Roche’s save on a Joe McDade shot, palming in a goal in between points for Seán Cassidy and Lee Cullen.
That was still the margin at half-time and it was stretched by frees from Fionán O’Brien and Garvan Joes after the break, before Laois were sparked to life by a goal. Brian Byrne set up Niall Corbet for the score and while Fermanagh edged back in front, Laois now had a spring in their step.
They went on a run of 1-3 unanswered with Byrne getting their second goal, and it needed a great save from Seán McNally to deny a third to Pa Kirwan.
That proved crucial as Garvan Jones, Josh Largo Ellis and Conor Love got the scores to see Fermanagh over the line for their fourth win of the campaign.
