Keenan goal guides St Brigid’s to victory over Clann

St Brigid’s 1-12 Clann na nGael 0-7

By Matt Scally

After last week’s memorable comeback win over Clann na nGael in the U-14 decider, St Brigid’s added this year’s U-16 title to their trophy cabinet with a deserved win over the same opposition.

A heavy downpour of rain preceded Monday’s game at Woodmount and the drizzle kept up for the entire 60 making for extremely challenging conditions.

Owing to the weather, the quality of the game certainly suffered with scores hard to come by and defences always on top.

Clann did, in fact, hold a narrow one-point lead at the break after Noah Byrne tapped over a free on the stroke of half time. Tenacious tackling from their very impressive defensive unit had kept a skilful Brigid’s attack at bay, holding them to a mere three frees.

Brigid’s emerged for the second half in the mood to put that stat right and very nearly had the perfect start when a slick hand pass from Joshua Coyne set Jake Digan through on goal. But Digan found Fabian Kavanagh standing tall in the Clann net and his shot was blocked away.

Brigid’s did wrestle the lead back soon after through a quick brace of frees from Coyne. Clann responded with a free of their own from the boot of Paddy Lawless to tie things up at five apiece.

With scores a scarcity (only one from play so far), it looked as though a goal for either side could be the deciding factor and as the clock ticked towards 45 minutes, it was the Kiltoom men that found it.

Midfielder James O’Brien set full-forward Luke Keenan in motion with a slick pass. Gathering the ball in space, Keenan headed straight for goal and thumped the ball to the near top corner giving Kavanagh zero chance this time around.

It looked every bit the decisive moment and Aaron Lally followed it up not long after with a fine point that brought huge cheers from the Brigid’s supporters who sensed victory was now on the cards.

Still Clann kept plugging away but two frees from Lawless were cancelled out by Coyne and Keenan as Brigid’s looked to keep their opponents at arm’s length.

With a minute to go Keenan found the range once more to all but seal it and when O’Brien landed the score of the evening soon after, a booming two-pointer that hung in the air for an eternity before dropping over, there was no doubt left.

Earlier on, Brigid’s had made an excellent start with two frees (one a two-pointer) from Coyne seeing them race into an early three-nil lead.

Free-takers were very much to the fore for the duration of this final and it was a Lawless free that got Clann off the mark after seven minutes. And when Rian Mulvihill tapped over another for Clann, the tie was up and running.

Unfortunately a full 18 scoreless minutes followed before Mulvihill finally got the scoreboard ticking again. And on the stroke of half-time, Clann hit the front for the first time with that Noah Byrne free.

It hadn’t been a classic by any stretch of the imagination but Clann would have been delighted to take a one-point lead into the second half. Brigid’s had looked quite threatening at times when going forward but the robustness of Clann’s rearguard had put them in a superb position.

That pattern continued well into the second half but eventually Brigid’s class showed and once Keenan’s goal hit the net, they never looked back.

Player of the match: Luke Keenan (St Brigid’s). Despite not scoring until his 44th-minute goal, Keenan was ultimately the deciding factor in this game. There is no doubt that his goal was the crucial score but he also followed that up with three points from play to break the back of the Clann challenge. Joshua Coyne hit 0-6 (all from frees) but looked the classiest player on the pitch while the energy of Aaron Lally went a long way towards helping Brigid’s to their win.

For Clann, goalkeeper Fabian Kavanagh made two excellent saves at a time when the result was very much still in doubt. Noah Byrne, splitting his time between midfield and full-forward, also had a fine game.

Scorers - St Brigid’s: L. Keenan 1-3; J. Coyne 0-6 (1tpf, 4f); J. O’Brien 0-2 (tp); A. Lally 0-1. Clann na n Gael: P. Lawless 0-4 (4f); R. Mulvihill 0-2 (1f); N. Byrne 0-1f.

St Brigid’s - Noah Mulligan; Thomas Gallagher, Evan Walsh, Jason Heneghan; Tommy Lennon, Dylan Feely, Daniel Higgins; James O’Brien, Ciaran O’Sullivan; Ryan Kilkenny, Kevin Kilduff, Aaron Lally; Jake Digan, Luke Keenan, Joshua Coyne. Subs: Cian Kilcommons for Gallagher (42 mins), John O’Brien for Heneghan (46), Sean Norton for Digan (56), Marcus O’Dwyer for Lally (60).

Clann na nGael - Fabian Kavanagh; Jack Preston, Conor Naughton, Barry Brogan, Conall Lambe, Kasper Drwal, Sebastian Cullen; Noah Byrne, Aaron Martin; Ruadhan O’Higgins, Cillian Gavin, Cian McGoldrick; Paddy Lawless, Cian Dunning, Rian Mulvihill. Subs: Harry Hewitt for Dunning (52 mins), Jeff Keleghan for O’Higgins (52).