GAA / St Brigid's 3-11 Round Towers 1-10: St Brigid's became the last of this year's full house of new provincial champions after a dominant closing 10 minutes sealed an emphatic first AIB Leinster championship for the Dublin club.
But when their supporters in a modest crowd of around 4,000 in Navan headed back home down the road to Blanchardstown relief as well as jubilation would have been their travelling companions. The Dublin champions made life quite hard for themselves despite looking to have a considerable attacking edge on their Kildare opponents.
Then again, if Round Towers had been lucky to get to half-time only a point in arrears they were also unfortunate to end up seven-point losers after a determined second-half comeback looked likely to take the final to the wire.
This was a very entertaining football match although occasionally marked by foul play that led to a flurry yellow cards and just before the end a dismissal of Round Towers fullback Brian Kennedy on a straight red card.
You don't often get turning points as obvious as yesterday's when Declan Darcy's 53rd-minute point stood out as glaringly as the bright winter sun that shone on Páirc Tailteann.
Round Towers had chased a six-point deficit back to two when, firstly, Karl O'Dwyer sliced a straightforward free and then a minute later Pádraig Golden saw a chance come back off the upright.
Within seconds the rebound had been seized and worked to Declan Lally, whose inviting long ball up to Darcy was nervelessly caught in the right corner and calmly dispatched over the bar for the point that killed off Round Towers and sounded the starter's gun on the St Brigid's run for the tape.
The Dublin club outscored their opponents by 1-3 to 0-1 in the closing 10 minutes.
Darcy ended up with 2-1 for the afternoon and was in good humour afterwards. "Two goals. I can't really take any credit for them but I've had a few bits of bad luck over the years so I'll take the good. They were getting a run on us so we knew that any of us who got a chance would have to take it," he said about the point.
"There's a lot of hard work has gone into this over the years. I know we've won a lot of awards this season but it's been because of four to five years of hard work." Darcy, like O'Dwyer, was an alteration to the announced team and his experience proved a major asset.
After an even opening quarter the match burst into life with two goals in a few seconds. Ken Darcy broke from centrefield, got Rory Gallagher in behind the defence, and his well-placed hand pass was punched to the net by the elder Darcy - amid suspicions of a square offence.
"The goals were great," said Paddy Clarke - who with former Meath All-Ireland winner Gerry McEntee manages the winners - afterwards. "We were hoping that we could make that bit of Dublin slickness tell and I suppose you ride your luck. These things balance themselves out," he said of the possible infringement.
Instead of consolidating this drawing of first blood, Brigid's didn't concentrate and allowed a retaliatory opposition movement to get too far without putting in the tackles. Centrefielder Damien Broughall provided a spectacular finish and the match was back in the melting pot.
It was a frustrating first half for the Dublin side. Although they had the wherewithal to put the Round Towers full-back line under pressure the moves wouldn't come together. Lally covered a great deal of ground, Kevin Bonar moved well and Rory Gallagher's ability to use the ball always threatened but apart from the goal the return wasn't what it should have been.
Elsewhere, possession was given away too often. Poor clearances frequently invited Round Towers back into play and the Kildare side showed good economy of shooting to trail by only a point at the interval.
That was a stage we feared we might never reach as referee Eugene Murtagh was taken on a tour of the field by his officials in injury time. Each stop along the way brought admonition and five players ended up with yellow cards in the minutes before the break.
On the restart Brigid's flew into a six-point lead. Darcy's second goal was almost a replica of the first, Gallagher carrying on a move by Ken Darcy and Lally before again teeing up the ball.
"We weren't stretching them," said Clarke of the first half. "Rory was playing through the middle too much. But it worked better in the second half. Also the experience of playing in Navan stands to you. When you're attacking up the hill the goals look nearer than they are so you should bring the ball in closer." Once again Brigid's gave away the initiative and with Glenn Ryan driving from the back Round Towers showed some bottle by pulling themselves back into contention.
Helped by the usual supply of loose clearances and some good play by Leonard Donlon and Golden, they got the margin down to two in the 50th minute.
Declan Darcy's point reversed the momentum and, when Brigid's started to move, the match was only going one way. In injury time a goal conceived and executed by the wing backs saw Mick Galvin tap Graham Norton's bouncing pass into the net.
"We came up short," said Towers manager John Crofton. "I thought we reacted to the first goal very well but we didn't convert those chances in the second half and I knew they'd always counterattack. It's the difference between being one or two points behind and one or two points in front. We should have got on level terms."
ST BRIGID'S: P Keane; K Keane, D Cahill, M Cahill; M Galvin (1-1), P Andrews, G Norton; K Darcy (0-1), J Ward; J Noonan (0-3, two frees), Rory Gallagher (0-2, both frees), D Lally; K Bonar (0-2), D Darcy (2-1), Raymond Gallagher (0-1, a free). Subs: C Ryan for Noonan (46 mins).
ROUND TOWERS: J Kindregan; D Holohan, B Kennedy, D Maher; B Lacey (0-1), G Ryan, M Scanlon; P Mullarkey (0-2), D Broughall (1-0); TJ Waters, P Golden (0-2), L Donlon (0-2); K O'Dwyer (0-2, one free), P Donnelly, L Ryan (0-1, a free). Subs: S Daly for Waters (40 mins), S Drea for O'Dwyer (54 mins).
Referee: E Murtagh (Longford).
St Brigid's will now face Gaeltacht in February's All-Ireland semi-final.
