AIB Leinster Club IFC Final: Sallins come good with late flourish

​AIB Leinster club IFC final

Sallins 2-11 Tubberclair 2-4

By Paul Keane at Cedral St Conleth's Park, Newbridge

The Sallins club and their supporters won't forget the last 10 minutes of this provincial final anytime soon.

Pegged back to level terms by a resurgent Tubberclair, and playing into the teeth of a stiff wind, it looked like the previously unbreakable Sallins might finally crumble after an all-conquering campaign.

They didn't though and by outscoring the Westmeath men by 2-2 to 0-1 in those closing minutes they not just kept the AIB Leinster IFC title in Kildare for a third season running but confirmed that they are truly a special team.

Cian Grimes was their scorer in chief, firing off 1-7 and registering the crucial 50th minute goal that ignited Sallins and prompted that late siege of scoring.

James Dalton grabbed their other major early in stoppage time to secure what was in the circumstances a slightly flattering seven-point win.

That's not the end of the road for the Kildare side either as they will take on freshly minted Munster champions An Ghaeltacht in an All-Ireland club semi-final on the first weekend of January.

Sallins' reputation preceded them beforehand with a string of big wins propelling them through to the provincial decider largely at their ease.

Whilst Tubberclair met with stiff resistance in the Westmeath final, as well as more recently against Hunterstown Rovers in the provincial semi-final, Sallins won virtually all of their county and provincial games by double-digit margins.

The one game they failed to win by at least 10 points was the Leinster semi-final against Clara - which they won by nine!

And when they played with the stiff first-half wind, the expectation was that they would hit the scoring trail again and perhaps even put the game to bed by half-time.

It didn't pan out that way though because while the side managed by Jonathan Daniels led by 0-7 to 0-1 at the interval, it was a competitive half dominated by the influence of two-pointers.

Three of Sallins' four first-half scores were two-pointers, two from Cian Grimes and the other from Emmet Ralph.

Kildare star and Tailteann Cup winner Colm Dalton has been Sallins' key man at number 11 but their tactic this time was to work the ball out to Grimes on the left, just outside the arc.

Grimes nailed his first two-point attempt in the sixth minute and added another from a free in the 15th minute.

But three other long-range attempts by Grimes flew wide and a fourth dropped short.

Dalton lined out with a heavy strapping around his right thigh and losing him to an apparent injury in the 25th minute was another big setback for Sallins.

Matthew Whittaker struck Tubberclair's solitary first-half point in the 14th minute, punching the air partly in celebration and partly in an attempt to inspire those around him.

But six first-wides hurt Tubberclair who didn't get their scoring going until the second-half.

Daire O'Connor's goal within two minutes of the restart was a big boost, immediately cutting the deficit in half and igniting Tubberclair.

Whittaker then weighed in with 1-1, cutting through the centre of the Sallins defence for Tubberclair's second goal in the 44th minute, before Paul Keegan pointed to tie it up at 2-3 to 0-9.

Sallins, even with Colm Dalton making a surprising return to action, appeared to have finally reached breaking point.

To their credit, that's when they dug deepest, redoubling their efforts and hitting the vital scores to turn a tricky situation into a famous win for the club.

Moments after the Keegan score, Sallins worked a move up the left that ended with Grimes flicking in their first goal from close range.

Glen McEvoy and Grimes added singles before James Dalton effectively sealed the win with Sallins' second goal just after the hour.

With space ahead of him, Dalton launched a two-v-one attack with a sumptuous chip lift, worked a one-two with colleague Stephen Kelly and then palmed in from close range.

Sallins scorers: Cian Grimes 1-7 (1 tp, 1 tpf, 3f), James Dalton 1-0, Emmet Ralph 0-2 (1 tp), Stephen Kelly 0-1 (0-1f), Glen McEvoy 0-1.

Tubberclair scorers: Matthew Whittaker 1-2, Daire O'Connor 1-0, Paul Keegan 0-1, Eoghan McCabe 0-1.

SALLINS: Matthew Farrelly; Ruairi O Domhnaill, Sean O Domhnaill, Mark Moynihan; Glen McEvoy, Eoin McConnon, Luke Kelly; Daragh Mangan, Paul Farrelly; Luke Killian, Colm Dalton, Cian Grimes; Stephen Kelly, Emmet Ralph, James Dalton.

Subs: Alan Marshall for Colm Dalton 25, Sean Conway for Farrelly 38, Dalton for Ralph 40, Darren Keane for McConnon 44, Aaron Carney for Moynihan 61.

TUBBERCLAIR: Kevin Fagan; Stephen McGonagle, Cathal Tighe, Liam Staunton; Taylor Slevin, Tom Kelleher, Sean Claffey; Gavin Delaney, Mathew Whittaker; Paul Keegan, Fred Kelleher, Eoghan McCabe; Kealen Connell, Daire O'Connor, Tom Bourke.

Subs: Kyle Fagan for Staunton 53, Oisin O'Meara for Slevin 55, Finn Duffy for Bourke 55, Paul Garvey for Tighe 59.

Referee: Stephen Fagan (Wicklow).