Celbridge 1-15
Carbury 0-10
Joe Mallon SFC quarter-final
Celbridge had little bother in dispatching Carbury on Saturday evening as the beaten county finalists from last year set up a semi-final meeting with Athy next weekend.
Trevor O’Sullivan’s side were invigorated by a first half goal from Liam O’Flynn, but it was the excellent defensive display which laid the foundations for Celbridge to build upon in Newbridge.
They still probably need to show a bit more in attack to trouble the likes of Moorefield, but their victory on Saturday evening at least sets up a cracking semi-final tie with Athy.
It took a while for this game to get going, and the first 20 minutes was a dour affair as both sides managed just a couple of points each. There were wides, shots dropped short and some poor surrendering of possession as neither team managed to get anywhere above second gear. Once Celbridge hit the net through Liam O’Flynn in the 24th minute the game began to open up a little more.
There were three minutes on the clock when Fergal Conway opened the scoring by muscling his way up the right wing and slotting over a point from a tight angle. Carbury responded as David Kelly – the Kildare minor captain in 2017 who has missed much of the last year through injury – fired over a good score to get his team up and running.
They came close to netting the game’s first goal when Eoghan O’Flaherty found a bit of space, but his low shot lacked the power required to beat Shane McNamara. His older brother did hit the target soon after as he sold a lovely dummy hop to a Celbridge defender and then stroked over a point off his left.
David Hughes and Eoghan O’Flaherty traded points from frees, but Celbridge soon hit a purple patch that would propel them into a commanding position. John Costello floated over a beauty of a score from the right, before the game’s first goal arrived when Conway floated a high ball from a free in over the Carbury defence to Liam O’Flynn who turned and rolled a low shot past Declan Conroy.
Niall Donnelly – on for the black carded Conor Plunkett – added to the Celbridge lead with a tidy score, before O’Flaherty finally hit back with a score for Carbury from a free. A beautiful, sweeping move started from a McNamara kickout finished with Ollie Lyons fisting over a superb score, and another point from Hughes sent Celbridge five clear as half-time approached.
O’Flaherty had the final say in the half, curling over a point from a free to leave the scores at 1-6 to 0-5 at the short whistle.
Celbridge really stamped home their authority in the opening stages of the second half as they scored four points in quick succession to open up an eight-point lead and effectively put the game to bed.
The first score came from Kevin Flynn excellently turning the ball over in his defence before releasing Tony Archbold to set up Hughes for a fine score, and Paddy Brophy added to that shortly after by nailing a free from distance.
Flynn got in on the act by curling over a tidy effort under little pressure, before Hughes raised another white flag as Celbridge really hit their stride.
Carbury needed goals to claw their way back into the game, but they never looked like coming. They did at least start to cause Celbridge some headaches as the excellent David Kelly fired over a couple of points in quick succession to give them some hope.
Liam O’Flynn kept the Celbridge scoreboard ticking over by nudging over a score from close range, but Carbury further strengthened their position through scores from Aaron O’Neill and Andy Dermody to cut the gap to five with 15 minutes left to play.
The Carbury challenge effectively fizzled out after that, and it was really an excellent score from Conway at the other end that put the stop gap in the west Kildare side’s revival. O’Flaherty managed a point from a free with 10 minutes left to play, but that proved to be his team’s last score of the day as Celbridge headed for home with some authority.
Archbold got a fine score from play and Costello blazed over his second of the evening in the closing stages as Trevor O’Sullivan’s men took another step towards returning to a county final.
Scorers for Celbridge: D Hughes 0-5(3f), L O’Flynn 1-1, J Costello and F Conway 0-2 each, T Archbold, N Donnelly, P Brophy (1f), O Lyons and K Flynn 0-1 each.
Scorers for Carbury: E O’Flaherty(3f) and D Kelly 0-3 each, A O’Neill 0-2, M O’Flaherty and A Dermody 0-1 each.
Celbridge
Shane McNamara; John Costello, Mick Konstantin, Hugh McGrillen; Tony Archbold, Mick O’Grady, Conor Plunkett; Fergal Conway, Kevin Flynn; Ollie Lyons, David Byrne, Paddy Brophy; Kevin O’Callaghan; David Hughes, Liam O’Flynn.
Subs used: Niall Donnelly for Plunkett BC 20mins, Shane O’Flynn for Byrne 54mins, Dylan Corcoran for Flynn 59mins, David Wright for O’Flynn 63mins.
Carbury
Declan Conroy; Josh Browne, Danny Boyle; Colm Kearney; Morgan O’Flaherty, Brian O’Flaherty, Andy Dermody; Willie Groome, Aaron O’Neill; Jimmy Dunne, Derek McCormack, Eoghan O’Flaherty; Jack Cully, Stephen McGlynn, David Kelly.
Subs used: Dale Redmond for McCormack BC 41mins, Mark Cully for J Cully 54mins, Dean Cummins for Dermody 59mins.
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