KILDARE County's Under 21 side continued their recent run of good form in chalking up their third consecutive victory in a pulsating game against Bray Wanderers at Athy Town.
The young Thoroughbreds showed all their qualities and faults in the one match but boss Eddie Moen was delighted with the three points at the final whistle.
"It was an amazing game and you could say that Bray were really hard done by not to come away with a point," said Moen, who former Suncroft keeper James Dillon was the hero once again.
Two weeks ago Dillon had made the headlines after being pressed into action as a striker and ended up scoring two goals against Dublin University - this time he let his goalkeeping speak for itself.
But Dillon could do little to prevent Bray firing into the lead in the eighth minute, Daryl Brack drilling home a 25 yard blast through a crowd of players.
But it took Kildare no longer than 60 seconds to equalise - Shane D'Arcy latching onto a poorly cleared corner and his left-footed effort deflected past Bray keeper Mervyn Travers for a fortunate equaliser.
With both sides throwing 100 per cent into attack, the superbly appointed
Athy ground got the match the host club deserved and Bray regained the lead in the 22nd minute.
Dermot Fitzpatrick exposed the Thoroughbreds' mistimed offside trap and ran through to lob the exposed Dillon to make it 2-1.
Derek Griffin was desperately unlucky not to put County level going in at half-time when he forced Travers into an amazing save with a thumping 25 yard effort.
Two minutes after the restart, Kildare did equalise - Damien Smyth heading home from two yards from Mick Hartnett's devilish near post corner.
Hartnett's dead ball play was a real feature of the game and the Kildare captain set up County's third goal in the 52nd minute with a free that Philip Gorman headed on for Smyth to race through and finish with style.
But County couldn't hang onto their lead and Bray got a sloppy equaliser in the 61st minute when Paul O'Reilly broke through and squared for Eamonn
Zayeed to finish from close range.
Once again it was a Hartnett free-kick that helped County regain the lead, Shane D'Arcy knocking the ball down for Griffin to latch onto it and drill
it past Travers from 12 yards.
However, the excitement didn't end there. With three minutes left referee Martin Maloney gave a penalty against Naas native David Griffith for handball, presenting Bray with a glorious chance to level.
Zayeed struck the spot-kick well but Dillon made himself the hero once more with a stunning save - incredibly knocking the low drive over his crossbar.
Dillon had made at least three point blank saves in the dying minutes so there was nobody quibbling his right to earn the plaudits after an amazing 90 minutes.
County's next under 21 game is on Saturday at a Kildare venue to be confirmed.
KILDARE COUNTY - James Dillon; Derek Griffin, Mick Hartnett, Eoin Hetherington, David Griffith, Shane D'Arcy, Shaun Tobin, Ken Darker, Bryan Byrne, Damien Smyth, Philip Gorman. Subs - Damien Coogan for Tobin 64 mins; Kevin Finn for Smyth 81; Keelan Noone for Gorman 85.
from Leinster Leader
06/09/2002, 3:29 PM
JC_GUFC
According to Aertel
The game is on in Clane this weekend but as you're only new to the league you mightn't realise how unreliable Aertel can be! :rolleyes:
CU
JC
P.S. Great idea to spread the u-21 games about the county!
09/09/2002, 1:58 PM
KCFC
Aertel
thanks JC but I know what Aertel is like.
They keep insisting on calling us Kildare TOWN for some strange reason :mad:
