Kildare 0-6
Mayo 0-8
All-Ireland U21 B Hurling Championship quarter-final
You’ll go a long way and watch a lot of hurling before you’ll ever see another game as low scoring as the one that was witnessed in St Conleth’s Park on Saturday afternoon. There was no magical defensive systems put into operation that forced this result, just some glaring inaccuracy on front of goal as Mayo and Kildare struck 28 wides in total during the 60 minutes.
It was the duo of David Kenny and Fergal Boland who stepped up to the plate when Mayo needed them most in the second half however, with both Aughamore men seeking to add hurling honours to the U21 All-Ireland football title they won earlier this year.
There is no point in trying to dress the first half up as anything other than a damp squib. The scoreboard read 0-3 apiece at the interval following a turgid 30 minutes of action where both sides registered a combined total of 13 wides, some of which were very poor.
There was very little in the way of excitement in those 30 minutes, but Mayo’s Corey Scahill and Kildare’s Jack Sheridan were rare bright sparks for their teams.
Consequently, it was Sheridan that got the scoring underway after six minutes when he raced up the right wing and landed a shot straight between the posts from 40 yards out. The wides began to flow from that stage onwards though, and it took another six minutes until either set of umpires were troubled. Fergal Boland and Abbi Abbasi landed points for the Green and Red- both of which were excellent- but Mayo would go another 12 minutes without a score as they continued to misfire on front of goal.
During that period Sheridan landed a stunning point from a free on his own ’45, while Barry Cormack pushed the hosts back in front with a close range free from the right wing. Scahill pumped over a superb score three minutes before the break to ensure the sides would go in level.
The second half could hardly produce a lower scoring affair than the first, but it really wasn’t much better. Kildare were almost non-existent in attack, while Mayo continued to hit wide after wide as they struggled to gain the upper hand in the tie.
Five minutes passed before there was a rare moment of brilliance from Sheridan as he cut over a lovely point from a sideline ball, before adding to that with another score three minutes later.
It was at this stage that David Kenny really lifted his side, landing two exquisite long range points to level the game. Matthew Melia edged the Lilywhites back in front a couple of minutes later by producing a magical piece of control to evade three Mayo defenders and flick the ball over from close range.
Mayo settled however, and a point from Sean Kenny tied the match up on 50 minutes. Fergal Boland stepped up as the game entered the final stages, pointing a free with seven minutes left on the clock and then landing a superb point from the right wing in injury time to seal the result.
Sheridan had a chance to salvage the game for Kildare deep in injury time, but his powerfully struck free was well blocked on the line by the Mayo defenders.
Mayo march on to the All-Ireland semi-final, while Kildare are out of the championship at the quarter-final stage for the second year running.
Scorers for Kildare: J Sheridan 0-4(1f, 1s/l), M Melia and B Cormack 0-1 each.
Scorers for Mayo: F Boland 0-3(1f), D Kenny 0-2, A Abassi, S Kenny and C Scahill 0-1 each.
Kildare
J Keane; C Derivan, D Brereton, O Loughran; L Quinn, J Sheridan, C Gordon(F Bass h/t); B Cormack, E O’Hehir; T Brady, C Byrne, B Byrne; M Melia, C Dowling, C Egan.
Mayo
M Parsons; C Murphy, M Phillips, D Huane; D Harrison(C Gardiner 49mins), D Kenny, C Murray; B Peoples, J Gallagher; F Boland, C Scahill, S Mulroy; S Forde(S Kenny 35mins), A Abbasi(Z O’Toole 35mins), J Coyne.
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