Sunday July 17 - Senior Football: Armagh-Notre Dame v Kerry

Kerry 2-8 Armagh-Notre Dame 1-9


Kerry and Armagh-Notre Dame met in a lower end of the table battle Sunday afternoon. Kerry just about held on in the second half after establishing a six-point first half lead. The Brighton side got within three points in the second half, but the game broke down into a disjointed second half with several scuffles breaking out and Kerry went on the win by a one goal margin.

Kerry's Padraig Doyle wins this midfield battle.

The first half was mostly Kerry. Kerry had the upper hand for the first 20 minutes by the end of which the Kingdom held a 1-6 to 0-1 lead. The northerners were not in it. Stephen O’Brien was on form in the corner and popped over the first two points. Padraig Doyle added a third before the Orchard County men opened their account with a Paudie Finnegan point. The usually dangerous Finnegan had a quiet first half. Kerry continued their dominance with the return of Sean Fogerty in the middle of the field, who though clearly hobbled by injury strengthened his side’s cause. Ian Galvin netted after about 20 minutes of the half gone, but the Brighton side finished the half strong with a flurry of late scores to keep themselves in the game. Seamie O’Hare and Paudie Finnegan narrowed the deficit to six points at the break, 1-7 to 0-4 in favour of the Kingdom.

Gavin Hall in possession for Armagh-Notre Dame.

The second half proved to be a testy affair. Two players were shown red cards. Ian Whelan for Kerry and Andy Murnin for Armagh-Notre Dame were shown the line following a breakout of fisticuffs involving several players from each side. The Orchard men had worked themselves back into the game early in the half with points from Finnegan and O’Hare. Kieran Moore stemmed the tide with a point for Kerry, scoring their only point of the second period, and then the scuffles broke out. The game never got into a rythm and it was a dig it out affair. Finnegan pointed late in the game, which meant that a goal would tie it, but there was too little time left to try to go for one. Kerry escape with the win, though in rather unconvincing fashion.


Kerry:  P. Bailey, M. Griffin, D. O’Sullivan, M. Godley, T. Dennehy, M. Fallon, S. Fogerty, T. Doyle, P. Doyle (0-1), I. Whelan, K. Moore (0-1), S. O’Brien (0-3), I. Galvin (1-3).  Armagh-ND:  D. Fields, O. Costello, D. Culleton, M. McAuley, F. Meehan, G. Cairns, A. Murnin, J. Lavery, J. Comiskey, M.Tiffany, G. Hall, S. O’Hare (0-2), P. Finnegan (0-6).
 
By Rory O'Donnell