Round-up: Allianz FL D3 action
Niall Corbet impressed for Laois. Photo by Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile
Allianz Football League Division Three
Clare 2-12 (2-2-8) Kildare 0-16 (0-3-10)
Offaly 1-13 (1-0-13) Leitrim 1-9 (1-0-9)
Laois 0-22 (0-1-20) Antrim 1-17 (1-3-11)
Fermanagh 0-19 (0-3-13) Sligo 0-19 (0-2-15)
The promotion race in Division Three of the Allianz Football League was blown wide open by Clare’s win over Kildare at Zimmer Biomet Cusack Park, where Keelan Sexton’s stoppage time goal handed the Lilywhites their first defeat of the season.
Clare will travel to Markievicz Park in Sligo next weekend to play their refixed tie while in two weeks’ time the Banner men will travel to Portlaoise and Offaly will play host to Kildare, two fixtures that look like they will have a huge bearing on the promotion race.
Kildare looked like the clear favourites to bounce right back up to the second tier before today but they shot 11 wides in total and even though they played into the breeze in the first half, they had a lot of work to do, trailing by 1-9 to 0-6.
Eoin Cleary found the net for the home side after 16 minutes and at the other end, Eamon Tubridy made a crucial stop to deny Alex Beirne just before the break, and it looked like they’d need every bit of that lead when Kildare started to mount a comeback.
Kildare held Clare scoreless in the third quarter while Callum Bolton and Beirne hoisted over two-pointers to level the game by the 55th minute.
Dermot Coughlan hit two points to nudge Clare back into the lead but that was shortlived, with Beirne’s second orange flag giving Kildare what looked like a decisive lead in stoppage time – until Sexton intervened to put this Division right on a knife edge.
Offaly got back to winning ways in Ballinamore, but the Faithful men stumbled rather than surged across the line against Leitrim, who played their best football of the league so far in the opening ten minutes.
Conor Quinn, Paul Honeyman, Riordan O’Rourke and Ben Guckian were on the mark as Leitrim moved 0-5 to no score in front, but they couldn’t quite keep it going and good scores from Keith O’Neill, Daire McDaid and Kyle Higgins put the Faithful men back on level terms.
John Furlong goaled before half-time to ease Offaly’s nerves but they still struggled to pull clear and briefly had their lead cut to a single point after Darren Cox found the net for Leitrim with 10 minutes to play.
Late dead ball points from Paddy Dunican and O’Neill sealed Offaly's win.
Laois threw their hat into the ring as potential promotion challengers in Division Three of the Allianz Football League this evening when they held firm in the face of a late surge from 14-man Antrim to pick up their third win of the campaign this evening in Portlaoise.
The last time Antrim came to the midlands they were undone by two red cards early in the second half of their defeat to Offaly, and it was a similar story here as Kavan Keenan’s dismissal 10 minutes after the restart left them with a disadvantage they couldn’t quite overcome.
For Laois, whose form has been up and down this year, this was a superb attacking display and one that suggests that they could yet snatch one of the top two places, with crucial battles against fellow contenders Fermanagh and Clare still to come.
A huge amount of the work in tonight’s win was done in the second quarter, when they came back from a 1-7 to 0-4 deficit – Antrim’s goal coming from Conor Hand – to trail by just one at the interval, 1-9 to 0-11.
Niall Corbet hit three points of his four from play during that surge, while Damon Larkin (0-3) and Mark Barry (0-8, 0-5f) also had prolific nights, building up their tallies the old-fashioned way, one point at a time.
Antrim were still one up when Keenan was dismissed and from then on, Laois were in control, moving six points up before Dermot McAleese and Patrick McBride hit late two-pointers to set up a dramatic finale.
Fermanagh will be the happier of the two teams after Saturday's draw at Brewster Park, where Sligo led by 0-19 to 0-14 going into second half stoppage time, but back-to-back two pointers from Garvan Jones and Seán Cassidy were followed by a last-kick equaliser from goalkeeper Seán McNally, ensuring a share of the spoils.
Fermanagh were also marginally the better side in the first half, after which they trailed by a single point (0-8 to 0-7) despite playing into the mild breeze.
The first 15 minutes of the second half were completely dominated by Sligo however, as they shot seven points in a row, all from play and with seven different players chipping in with one each.
It was only when Josh Largo Ellis found the target midway through the half that Fermanagh finally settled into the game, but even so, it looked like Sligo were destined for their first win of the campaign when they led by 0-19 to 0-12 with five minutes to go.
