Fleming’s heroics carve out draw for Kinnegad men

GAA: Shay Murtagh Precast Senior Football Championship Section ‘A’

St Loman’s, Mullingar 1-11

Coralstown/Kinnegad 1-11

Paul Hughes

Few will disagree that St Loman’s, Mullingar and Coralstown/Kinnegad are the form teams in the élite level of Westmeath club football, and during the last pulsating ten minutes of their drawn game in TEG Cusack Park last Saturday evening, neutrals left the county ground hoping for a reprise at the business end of the championship.

A cautious, defensive battle in this SFC clash saw St Loman’s lead by the minimum (0-10 to 0-9) with five minutes to go, when a defensive lapse from last year’s finalists allowed Kinnegad sub Wayne Fox to tee up Shane Fleming for a low, powerful finish, giving the Reds – who had trailed since the 13th minute – a sensational two-point lead.

In the preceding minutes, Fleming had lifted the Kinnegad faithful with a pair of expertly-taken ‘45s’, and he would do so once more at the death, as Pascal Kelleghan’s charges eked out a deserved draw.

Neither side deserved to lose this one, with St Loman’s capable of their own heroics. Two minutes after Fleming rattled Jason Daly’s net, at the other end, John Heslin looked to reduce the arrears with a difficult free. It fell short, and in the ensuing confusion, the ball landed kindly for sub Shane Dempsey, who toe-poked home for the sort of goal that would break any side’s resolve.

Within a minute, however, Kinnegad drew level, when corner back Jason Lynch sprayed the ball out wide to another sub, Callum Cruise, who divided the posts from the left corner.

The pendulum continued to swing, and two minutes into stoppage time, Ronan O’Toole made a dart through the middle and, after a one-two with Enda Gaffney, punted what looked to be the winner off his right foot. This spectacular effort sent the St Loman’s crowd into raptures.

However, with time about to expire, Kinnegad won a free within range for Fleming, and although his off-the-ground kick was deflected wide, he made no mistake with the resultant ‘45’.

Everything that happened before the thrills and spills of this ten-minute finale was mere prelude. It was the clichéd game of two halves, with St Loman’s having the edge in the first, and Kinnegad ultimately mastering the second.

The Reds’ Eoghan Bracken had an early point disallowed when referee Barry Pierce detected a thrown ball, but Brían Cooney opened the scoring for them on five minutes after a patient move.

However, by the midway stage of the first half, St Loman’s led 0-4 to 0-3, with Danny McCartan (3) and Enda Gaffney cancelling out further Kinnegad scores from Josh Gahan and Dan Leech. All the while, the returning John Heslin and Ronan O’Toole were the primary string-pullers, as Paddy Dowdall’s troops settled into the game.

The Mullingar men led 0-6 to 0-3 shortly before the break, with Heslin (a free) and Tristan Graham adding to their tally, before Leech added his second, leaving Kinnegad two adrift when the whistle went.

St Loman’s looked poised to close out the game after the third quarter, with Eoghan Hogan combining well with Gaffney to point with composure just after the restart, while the pacy Peter Foy and experienced Shane Dempsey emerged from the dugout to tack on well-taken scores. With only Brían Cooney responding for Kinnegad from a free, St Loman’s had a three-point cushion (0-9 to 0-6) with 15 to go.

From there, Coralstown/Kinnegad began to impose themselves on the game to a greater degree, with the introduction of Wayne Fox giving them new-found energy. Darren Giles won and converted a mark on 49 minutes to reduce the arrears to two, and three minutes later, Fox’s industry was key to Kinnegad winning the first of Fleming’s three sublime ‘45s’.

Seconds later, Foy was the architect at the other end, when his long ball was nudged down by Heslin into the path of Danny McCartan, and he pointed on the turn – his fourth, to cap an impressive personal display – to break Kinnegad’s momentum.

However, the Reds upped the ante from there and tormented St Loman’s with a relentless pressing game, turning the Lakepoint Park outfit over on several occasions, one of which led to Fleming’s goal.

With Dempsey and O’Toole, St Loman’s had a few tricks up their collective blue sleeve, however, and they almost left the field with the points. But Fleming’s cool mastery ensured that the spoils were shared.

Man of the match: Shane Fleming (Coralstown/Kinnegad).As well as putting in a solid shift in midfield, Fleming’s expertise from ‘45s’, joined with a superbly-taken second half goal, gets him the nod as the best of those on display last Saturday evening.

Key moment: Fleming’s high-pressure equalising ‘45’ deep into stoppage time was a real showstopper, and clinched a deserved draw for Kinnegad just when it looked like Ronan O’Toole’s late point had sealed a St Loman’s win.

Scorers - St Loman’s, Mullingar: D McCartan 0-4, S Dempsey 1-1, E Gaffney, J Heslin (free), T Graham, E Hogan, P Foy and R O’Toole 0-1 each. Coralstown/Kinnegad: S Fleming 1-3 (0-3 ‘45’), B Cooney (1f) and D Leech 0-2 each, J Gahan, Darren Giles (mark), J Lynch and C Cruise 0-1 each.

St Loman’s, Mullingar: Jason Daly; Eoghan Hogan, Darragh O’Keeffe, Gerry Grehan; Jack Geoghegan, David Whelan, Conor O’Donoghue; Enda Gaffney, Ryan Jones; Tristan Graham, Ronan O’Toole, Sam McCartan; Danny McCartan, John Heslin, Seán Flanagan. Subs used: Kevin Regan for Graham (inj., 38), Shane Dempsey for Jones (43), Peter Foy for O’Donoghue (43), Oisín Hogan for O’Keeffe (59), Seán Dinnegan for E Hogan (60+1).

Coralstown/Kinnegad: Stephen McNevin; Ciaran Daly Jnr, Daniel Woods, Jason Lynch; James Maxwell, Jason Macken, Josh Gahan; Shane Fleming, Podge Quinn; Eoin O’Brien, Darren Giles, Eoghan Bracken; Dan Leech, Brían Cooney, Liam Daly. Subs used: Wayne Fox for Bracken (38), David Giles for Daly Jnr (38), Callum Cruise for Leech (50), Ciaran Daly Snr for Quinn (59).

Ref: Barry Pierce (St Mary’s, Rochfortbridge).