Wicklow let Kildare off the hook in madcap and frantic finale

• Published date: 15 April 2024
• Publication title: Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)

Sargent’s score came just seconds after Wicklow had squandered a glorious opportunity, with Matt Nolan kicking wide of an open goal at the other end of the pitch

Kildare, who had Kevin Flynn sent off in the 30th minute, led 0-15 to 0-12 with the encounter in the second added minute of the four announced when Eoin Doyle was turned over in defence and the dispossession sent Kevin Quinn straight through on goal.

Doyle scampered back and cynically rugby tackled the Wicklow forward – in doing so the Kildare centre back conceded a penalty and received a black card.

Oisín McGraynor made no mistake with the penalty, drilling it beyond Mark Donnellan. Draw game, Kildare down to 13, and the wind in Wicklow’s sails as they searched for back-to-back Leinster SFC victories for the first time since 1989.

Wicklow turned Kildare over again moments later, further out the field this time, and as they broke wing-back Nolan carried possession forward. History beckoned. Donnellan was way out of goal while Kildare were light on numbers back. But rather than carry the ball further forward, Nolan attempted to shoot for a goal from 45 metres out only for his effort to bounce agonisingly wide of the right post.

“In hindsight, we’d all work it (in), but we had the same opportunity against Down, carried it and we butchered it. We said the next time we have the opportunity that if we turned the ball over would we have a go, so we’ll all take responsibility for that one, it’s not just one player,” said McConville.

Dropped dangerously Alex Beirne won the resulting kickout and the passage of play finished with a Kevin Feely skied a shot, his first mishit of the day, but the ball dropped dangerously in front of the Wicklow goal. Niall Kelly won it, offloaded to Sargent and the Kildare wing back fisted over from close range. Game over. The Wicklow players reacted to the final whistle with a synchronised collapse to the ground.

“It’s gutting,” added McConville. “It’s very difficult to know what to say to players.”

It was a game Kildare had led from the eighth minute until McGraynor’s injury-time penalty, and yet at the final whistle it felt like a win they had snatched.

“Hard to put into words really,” stated a relieved Ryan. “But the one thing you’d take out of it is that it could have been very easy after the few months we’ve had, and after the way the last couple of minutes went from our own perspective, for fellas to sit back and say, ‘Well, not again, here we go’ and let it happen.”

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